maid-in-waiting

American  

[mayd-in-way-ting] / ˈmeɪd ɪnˈweɪ tɪŋ /

noun

• maids-in-waiting
  plural

1. an unmarried woman who serves as an attendant to a queen or princess; lady-in-waiting.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• maids-in-waiting
  plural

Etymology

Origin of maid-in-waiting

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

maid-in-waiting maids-in-waiting

They’re framing Queen Anne and her maid-in-waiting inside of that window, and her robe is sort of lifted up on the frame.

From Washington Post

Eurykleia retired to her quarters for the night, and then Eurynome, as maid-in-waiting, lighted her lord and lady to their chamber with bright brands.

From "The Odyssey" by Homer

One Thursday in the garden of Saint Cloud Marshal Duroc stood with a maid-in-waiting, Watching your Highness at his nurse's breast— Its whiteness, I remember, startled me.

From L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand

This want was only partially supplied by the moral Court treatise, which was ostensibly written for the courtier and not the maid-in-waiting.

From John Lyly by John Dover Wilson

Each maid-in-waiting is most fair— Note well the graces she unfurls— The winds have tossed her fluffy hair, And left it in a thousand curls.

From The Cornflower, and Other Poems by Jean Blewett

One of Mary's maids-in-waiting had been taught by the same writing master as Mary, and as a result her handwriting was almost indistinguishable from Mary's.

From Time Magazine Archive

While the Queen was in conference with the King, as was necessary, about the traitors, the Greeks remained in the Queen's tent with her maids-in-waiting.

From Four Arthurian Romances by William Wistar Comfort

Owing to the former it became erudite, polished, precise, meet indeed for the "parleyings" of courtiers and maids-in-waiting; but it was to the latter that it owed its essentials.

From John Lyly by John Dover Wilson

She had at least fifteen maids-in-waiting about her and had set up quite a court.

From Adventures in Swaziland The Story of a South African Boer by Owen Rowe O'Neil

Kriemhild, the fair, went with her maids-in-waiting to where, false of mood, she greeted the Nibelungs.

From The Nibelungenlied by Daniel Bussier Shumway