lady's maid
3
8.6
- noun
- /ˈleɪdiz meɪd/
- Archaic
:
dama de compañía
- As a lady's maid, she assisted the countess with her wardrobe and grooming every morning.
Examples
-
Could I be Miss Dalgleish's lady's maid?
-
Surely, Fräulein, as one lady's maid to another, you conversed as equals below stairs.
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I'm not sure I want to be a lady's maid.
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She'll make a fine lady's maid.
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If you are a lady's maid, your ladies never have a chance of discovering if you are a good cook.
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Allow me to introduce you to your lady's maid, Mrs. Swift.
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Vespasia's lady's maid had been busy most of the morning.
Fiction book (1990) -
Oh, I'm lady's maid to the Princess Mirabelle.
-
If you're gonna be a lady's maid, you've got to learn all the little tricks, haven't you?
-
She'd been reading about the upcoming masquerade for weeks, and even though she was nothing but a lady's maid (and occasionally a housemaid as well, whenever Araminta decided she wasn't working hard enough), she couldn't help but wish that she could attend the ball.
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
12
8.2
A woman who serves a lady and helps with household tasks
8
8.0
A woman who helps and cares for another person in a household
4
7.6
A woman who helps and looks after a queen or princess
1
9.4
A person who helps someone dress and bathe every day
How Close
Surface Forms
Morphology
lady's + maid
The phrase is compositionally predictable: 'lady's' marks possession and 'maid' is a female servant, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer a maid who serves a lady, especially in personal tasks like dressing. This possessive + occupation pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows standard English composition, making the meaning readily derivable from the parts.
Etymology
The noun lady's maid comes from work in big houses where a maid, a young woman servant, looked after a lady, helping her dress and fix her hair. So, lady's maid means 'a female servant who helps a woman get dressed and ready'.