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Maid vs Lady - What's the difference?

maid | lady |

As nouns the difference between maid and lady

is that maid is (dated|or|poetic) a girl or an unmarried young woman; maiden while lady is (historical)  the mistress of a household.

maid

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (dated, or, poetic) A girl or an unmarried young woman; maiden.
    • Note - maid is often used in the common or species names of flowering plants.
  • A female servant or cleaner (short for maidservant).
  • * , title=The Mirror and the Lamp
    • , chapter=2 citation , passage=She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid , […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.}}
  • (archaic) A virgin of either gender.
  • * 1380+ , (Geoffrey Chaucer), (The Canterbury Tales)
    • Crist was a mayde and shapen as a man.
  • * 1601 , (William Shakespeare), (Twelfth Night)
    • You are betrothed both to a maid and man.

    Synonyms

    * (young female person) damsel, maiden * (female servant) handmaiden, lady-in-waiting, maidservant * (female cleaner) chambermaid (in a hotel), charlady (in a house), charwoman (in a house)

    See also

    * bridesmaid * French maid * maid of honour * mermaid * old maid

    Anagrams

    * ----

    lady

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia lady) (ladies)
  • (historical)  The mistress of a household.
  • *
    • , chapter=16 , passage="he said to her, From whence comest thou Hagar, the servantess of Sarai (Sarai’s slave-girl), and whither goest thou? Which answered, I flee from the face of Sarai, my lady.”}}
  • A woman of breeding or higher class, a woman of authority.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=6 citation , passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.}}
  • * Lowell
    • lord or lady of high degree
  • * Shakespeare
    • Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, / We make thee lady .
  • (polite, or, used by children) A woman: an adult female human.
  • (in the plural)
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.}}
  • (slang)
  • Toilets intended for use by women.
  • (familiar) A wife or girlfriend; a sweetheart.
  • * (William Shakespeare), (Romeo and Juliet)
    • But soft, what light through yonder window breaks...? It is my lady , O it is my love!
    (Goldsmith)
  • A woman to whom the particular homage of a knight was paid; a woman to whom one is devoted or bound.
  • * Waller
    • The soldier here his wasted store supplies, / And takes new valour from his lady's eyes.
  • (slang) A queen (the playing card).
  • (dated, attributive, with a professional title) Who is a woman.
  • (Wicca) .
  • The triturating apparatus in the stomach of a lobster, consisting of calcareous plates; so called from a fancied resemblance to a seated female figure.

    • Derived terms

    * bag lady * charlady * dragon lady * the First Lady * forelady * gray lady * ladies and gentlemen * lady's bedstraw * lady's eardrop * lady's laces * lady's man * lady's mantle * lady's slipper * lady's thistle * lady's thumb * lady abbess * lady beetle * lady bird/lady-bird/ladybird * Lady Bountifel * lady bug/lady-bug/ladybug * Lady Campbell * lady chapel * ladyclock * lady crab * Lady Day * lady fern/lady-fern * lady's finger * ladyfinger * lady friend * Lady Godiva * lady-in-waiting * lady killer, lady-killer, ladykiller * ladylike * ladylove * Lady Macbeth strategy * Lady McLeod * lady of leisure * lady of pleasure * lady of the house * lady of the night * lady or tiger * ladyship * lady smock * lady who lunches * landlady * leading lady * lollipop lady * lunch lady/lunch-lady/lunchlady * m'lady/malady/milady * naked lady * no way to treat a lady * old lady * one fat lady * Our Lady * painted lady * Pink Lady/pink lady * saleslady * Tupperware lady * two fat ladies * saleslady * white lady * young lady * (lady)

    References

    * Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. ISBN 978-1880069523

    See also

    * lord * gentleman * ladies' room * broad

    Statistics

    * English terms of address 1000 English basic words ----