Bridesmaid

//ˈbɹaɪdzˌmeɪd// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A woman who attends a bride during her wedding ceremony, as part of the main wedding party.

    "I'd love to be your bridesmaid at the wedding."

  2. 2
    an unmarried woman who attends the bride at a wedding wordnet
  3. 3
    A person or team that perennially finishes well, but never first.

    "He had taken her for a dogsbody, a beta fish, a bridesmaid, a ride-along; he had looked right past her, as likely many people did."

Verb
  1. 1
    To act as a bridesmaid for; to attend a bride during her wedding ceremony.

    ""No, Trichy; I won't be Augusta's bridesmaid; I'll bide my time for bridesmaiding.""

Synonyms

All synonyms
best manbridesmanmaid of honorparanymphusher

Example

More examples

"She was a bridesmaid at the wedding."

Etymology

From bride + -s- + maid. In the sports and entertainment sense: in reference to the saying always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

Related phrases

always a bridesmaid, never a bridejunior bridesmaidmaid of honorwedding party

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.