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Maiden vs First - What's the difference?

maiden | first | Synonyms |

In obsolete terms the difference between maiden and first

is that maiden is a machine for washing linen while first is time; time granted; respite.

As nouns the difference between maiden and first

is that maiden is a girl or an unmarried young woman while first is the person or thing in the first position.

As adjectives the difference between maiden and first

is that maiden is virgin while first is preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.

As an adverb first is

before anything else; firstly.

maiden

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A girl or an unmarried young woman.
  • A female virgin.
  • :
  • A man with no experience of sex, especially because of deliberate abstention.
  • *:
  • *: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
  • A maidservant.
  • An unmarried woman, especially an older woman.
  • A racehorse without any victory ('virgin record').
  • (label) A Scottish counterpart of the guillotine.
  • :(Wharton)
  • (label) A maiden over.
  • (label) A machine for washing linen.
  • (label)
  • Derived terms

    * maidenhair * maidenhead * maidenhood * maidenly, maidenliness * maiden flight * maiden voyage * maiden name * maiden of honor * iron maiden

    Synonyms

    * bachelorette

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Virgin.
  • * Thackeray
  • a surprising old maiden lady
  • Without offspring.
  • Like or befitting a (young, unmarried) maiden.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Have you no modesty, no maiden shame?
  • (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.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=May 13 , author=Andrew Benson , title=Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=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.
  • * Shakespeare
  • maiden flowers
  • * Shakespeare
  • Full bravely hast thou fleshed / Thy maiden sword.
  • Of a fortress, never having been captured or violated.
  • (Macaulay)

    Synonyms

    * (l)

    first

    English

    (wikipedia first)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) (m), .

    Alternative forms

    * firste (archaic) * fyrst (obsolete) * fyrste (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).}}
  • Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.
  • * 1784 : William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. , PREFACE
  • THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Per?ons of the fir?t di?tinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ?everal new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and di?tingui?h it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.
    Alternative forms
    * ; (in names of monarchs and popes) I

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Before anything else; firstly.
  • * , chapter=8
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberry picker's overalls.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=29, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Unspontaneous combustion , passage=Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia.}}

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The person or thing in the first position.
  • * 1699 , , Heads designed for an essay on conversations
  • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
  • (uncountable) The first gear of an engine.
  • (countable) Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.
  • (countable, baseball) first base
  • (countable, British, colloquial) A first-class honours degree.
  • (countable, colloquial) A first-edition copy of some publication.
  • A fraction of an integer ending in one.
  • Derived terms

    * feet first * firstborn * first-class * first gear * first imperative (Latin grammar) * first of all * first place * first things first * first up

    See also

    * primary

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) (m), (m), . See also (l).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) Time; time granted; respite.
  • Statistics

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