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Maid vs Matron - What's the difference?

maid | matron |

As nouns the difference between maid and matron

is that maid is maiden while matron is a mature woman; a wife or a widow, especially, one who has borne children; a woman of staid or motherly manners.

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

    * ----

    matron

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A mature woman; a wife or a widow, especially, one who has borne children; a woman of staid or motherly manners.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:your wives, your daughters, your matrons , and your maids
  • *(Thomas Fuller) (1606-1661)
  • *:grave from her cradle, insomuch that she was a matron before she was a mother
  • *
  • *:“A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron ; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable,.
  • A housekeeper; especially, a woman who manages the domestic economy of a public institution; a head nurse in a hospital.
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