Search the Dictionary

A young person; a child; esp. a young woman; a maiden. "Stella is no chicken." Swift. Chicken cholera, a contagious disease of fowls; - - so called because first studied during the prevalence of a cholera epidemic in France. It has no resemblance to true cholera.

To strike gently; to give a gentle blow to. Chucked the barmaid under the chin. W. Irving.

abitually clean; pure; innocent. "Cleanly joys." Glanvill. Some plain but cleanly country maid. Dryden. Displays her cleanly platter on the board. Goldsmith.

e seventeenth century, there were only two great creative minds. Macaulay. Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever. C. Kingsley.

r, or against something. [Jove] clicked all his marble thumbs. Ben Jonson. When merry milkmaids click the latch. Tennyson.

A girl; a maiden. [Anglo-Irish]

continuous; continually recurring; steadfast; faithful; not fickle. Both loving one fair maid, they yet remained constant friends. Sir P. Sidney. I am constant to my purposes. Shak. His gifts, his constant ourtship, nothing gained. Dryden. Onward the constant current sweeps. Longfellow.

show of tenderness or regard, with a view to deceive and disappoint. You are coquetting a maid of honor. Swift.

Practicing or exhibiting coquetry; alluring; enticing. A pretty, coquettish housemaid. W. Irving.

quetry. Coy, and difficult to win. Cowper. Coy and furtive graces. W. Irving. Nor the coy maid, half willings to be pressed, Shall kiss the cup, to pass it to the rest. Goldsmith.

A garland carried before the bier of a maiden. [Obs.] Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants, Her maaiden strewments. Shak.

be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Is. i. 18. A maid jet rosed over with the virgin crimson of modesty. Shak.

To utter a sound expressive of joy or pleasure. The sweetest little maid, That ever crowed for kisses. Tennyson. To crow over, to exult over a vanquished antagonist. Sennacherib crowing over poor Jerusalem. Bp. Hall.

A young unmarried woman; a gerl; a maiden. With her train of damsels she was gone, In shady walks the scorching heat to shum. Dryden. Sometimes a troop of damsels glad, . . . Goes by to towered Cameleot. Tennyson.

A dairymaid. [Obs.]

A young lady; a damsel; a lady's maid.

A servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid. [Obs.] Chaucer.

not self-reliant; timid; modest; bashful; characterized by modest reserve. The diffident maidens, Folding their hands in prayer. Longfellow.

Having the hair in loose disorder. The dancing maidens are disheveled Mænads. J. A. Symonds.

To disgrace; to dishonor; as, to dishonest a maid. [Obs.] I will no longer dishonest my house. Chapman.