maid
Americannoun
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maids
plural
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a female domestic employee who cleans tourist accommodations or does cleaning or other housework in a home.
a hotel maid.
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a female domestic servant with any of various duties, especially in a large house (often used in combination).
a kitchen maid who assisted the cook; a handmaid; a lady’s maid; a nursery maid.
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Archaic. a girl or young unmarried woman.
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Archaic. a female virgin.
noun
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archaic a young unmarried girl; maiden
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a female servant
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( in combination )
a housemaid
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a spinster
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of maid
First recorded in 1225–1275; Middle English maide, maid, shortened variant of maiden
Explanation
A maid is a household worker who cleans and performs various other tasks. Today, only very wealthy people have maids — it's much more common to hire an occasional housekeeper or cleaner instead. In the US, it's uncommon to find a household with an actual maid, a servant who lives in the home and tidies it up, also doing jobs like ironing, grocery shopping, and cooking. In the old days, wealthy families employed maids who wore uniforms and sometimes waited on one individual woman, helping her dress herself and cleaning up after her. Maid, short for maiden, originally meant "unmarried woman."
Vocabulary lists containing maid
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There was a small kitchen, with a sign taped to the fridge: “Please clean up after yourself no maid service here!!!”
From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026
Sophie’s chosen family, like maid Hazel and Footman John, are as important as the Bridgerton clan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
He frequently speaks about his humble beginnings as the son of a bartender and a hotel maid.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
Based on the 1979 novel, this series follows the rags-to-riches story of a kitchen maid in 20th-century England.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
The Queen spoke so sharply that the maid was quite taken aback.
From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
“It also taught me a tremendous amount of humility. If your head ever got too big for itself, that you’re the owner’s son, and the maids didn’t show up, guess who’s making all the rooms?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Dunk and Egg’s camaraderie fits the same tradition, proposing scullery maids can become queens.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2026
The crown jewel of LuxJB’s collection is a 39,000-square-foot behemoth complete with nine bedrooms, four kitchens, a gym, spa, movie theater, pickleball court, basketball court and a team of three maids.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2025
That proved a winning proposition for generations of working people, yielding middle class paychecks for bartenders, restaurant servers, casino dealers and maids.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2024
As I stood without moving, I saw one of the maids pass silently along the passage—she had her back towards me, so did not see me—and go into the room where Lucy lay.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
