# maiden
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English mayden, meiden, from Old English mæġden (“girl”), originally a diminutive of mæġeþ (“girl”) via diminutive suffix -en, from Proto-West Germanic *magaþ, from Proto-Germanic *magaþs. Equivalent to maid +‎ -en.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈmeɪdən/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪdən

### Noun

maiden (plural maidens)
* (now chiefly literary) A girl or an unmarried young woman.
* (archaic) A female virgin.
    She's unmarried and still a maiden.
* (obsolete, dialectal) A man with no experience of sex, especially because of deliberate abstention.
** 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum Quartum”, in, book XI (in Middle English), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC, leaf 289, recto; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC, page 577:As for that ſaid ſire Bors I wille be ſhryuen with a good wylle / Soo ſyr Bors was confeſſyd / and for al wymmen ſir Bors was a vyrgyne / ſauf for one / that was the doughter of kynge Brangorys / and on her he gat a child that hyghte Elayne / and ſauf for her ſyre Bors was a clene mayden […]As for that, said Sir Bors, I will be shriven with a good will. So Sir Bors was confessed, and for all women Sir Bors was a virgin, save for one, that was the daughter of King Brangoris, and with her he begat a child that hight Elaine, and save for her Sir Bors was a clean maiden.
* A maidservant.
* A clothes maiden.
* (now rare) An unmarried woman, especially an older woman.
* (horse racing) A racehorse without any victory, i.e. one having a "virgin record".
* (horse racing) A horse race in which all starters are maidens.
* (historical) A Scottish counterpart of the guillotine.
** 1832, Robert Chambers, The History of Scotland:It had been customary during the whole civil war, to decapitate state criminals by the instrument called the maiden; but Montrose was condemned to a more ignominious death , by a gibbet thirty feet high
* (cricket) A maiden over.
* (obsolete) A machine for washing linen.
* (Wicca) Alternative form of Maiden

#### Synonyms

* (unmarried (young) female): bachelorette

#### Derived terms

* A-bomb maiden
* billow maiden
* bondmaiden
* break one's maiden
* bridesmaiden
* clothes maiden
* comely maidens
* gleemaiden
* handmaiden
* Hiroshima maiden
* ice maiden
* iron maiden
* Maiden
* maiden-auntishness
* Maiden Bradley
* maidenhair
* Maidenhead
* maidenhead
* maidenhood
* maidenish
* maidenlike
* maidenliness
* maidenly
* Maiden Newton
* maiden of honor
* maidenry
* maidenship
* maiden's honesty
* Maiden's Tower
* Maidstone
* mermaiden
* milkmaiden
* shieldmaiden
* skymaiden
* swan maiden
* unmaiden
* unmaidenlike
* unmaidenliness
* unmaidenly
* wicket maiden

#### Related terms

* maid

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Adjective

maiden (not comparable)
* Virgin.
** 1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859, →OCLC:a surprising old maiden lady
** 1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House:It was just the middle of October when I moved in with my maiden sister […]
* (of a female, human or animal) Without offspring.
* Like or befitting a (young, unmarried) maiden.
** c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 155, column 2:Haue you no modeſty, no maiden ſhame, / No touch of baſhfulneſſe?
* (figuratively) Being a first occurrence or event.
    The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage.
    After Edmund Burke's maiden speech, William Pitt the Elder said Burke had "spoken in such a manner as to stop the mouths of all Europe" and that the Commons should congratulate itself on acquiring such a member.
** 2012 May 13, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport‎:Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado took his maiden victory and Williams's first since 2004 in a strategic battle with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.
* (cricket) Being an over in which no runs are scored.
* Fresh; innocent; unpolluted; pure; hitherto unused.
** c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv], page 72, column 2:Come Brother Iohn, full brauely haſt thou fleſht thy Maiden ſword.
** 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 226, column 2:When I am dead, good Wench, / Let me be vs’d with Honor; ſtrew me ouer / With Maiden Flowers, that all the world may know / I was a chaſte Wife, to my Graue: Embalme me, / Then lay me forth (although vnqueen’d) yet like / A Queene, and Daughter to a King enterre me.
* (of a fortress) Never having been captured or violated.
** 1631, J. Taylor, (Please provide the book title or journal name):Victorie forsook him for ever since he ransacked the maiden town of Magdenburg
** 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:But every citizen considered his own honor as bound up with the honor of the maiden fortress.
* (of a tree) Grown from seed and never pruned.

#### Synonyms

* maidenly

#### Derived terms

* flesh one's maiden sword
* maiden assize
* maiden-auntish
* maiden flight
* maiden grass
* maidenhair
* maidenhair fern
* maidenhair tree
* maiden name
* maiden over
* maiden plum
* maiden run
* maiden speech
* maiden stake
* maiden voyage

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Anagrams

* Damien, Eidman, Manide, Median, Medina, Midean, aidmen, demain, maenid, mained, median, medina, meidan

## Finnish
### Alternative forms

* maitten

### Noun

maiden
* genitive plural of maa

### Anagrams

* median

## Scots
### Alternative forms

* (obsolete, Older Scots) maidin, madin

### Etymology

From Middle English mayden, Old English mægden; compare Scottish Gaelic maighdeann. Attested in Older Scots from the 12th century.

### Noun

maiden (plural maidens)
* (archaic) maiden, a girl, an unmarried young woman
* (archaic, attributive or in compounds) (something) early, immature, first
    maiden egg ― the first egg laid by a young hen
    maiden-chance ― first opportunity
* (archaic) a servant girl, a maid
* (archaic) the last sheaf of grain harvested, decorated with ribbons and regarded as a talisman; (by extension) the end of the harvest
    Synonyms: kirn, clyack, hare
* (historical) [from 16th century] an instrument similar to a guillotine used for capital punishment
** 1843 [1724], Allan Ramsay, “Genty Tibby”, in Alexander Whitelaw, editor, The Book of Scottish Song‎:Now strike my finger in a bore, / My wyson with the maiden shore, / Gin I can tell whilk I am for, / ⁠When these twa stars appear thegither.Now stretch my finger on the rack, Shear my throat with the maiden, By the time I can tell where I am headed, These two stars appear together.
* (obsolete) [18th to 20th century] the eldest daughter of a landowner or wealthy farmer

### Verb

maiden (third-person singular simple present maidens, present participle maidenin, simple past maident, past participle maident)
* (obsolete, transitive) to act as maiden cummer (mother's assistant) at a christening
    maiden the bairn ― look after the child

### References

* ↑ “maidin, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
* “maiden, n., v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.