Damsel
//ˈdæm.zəl// noun
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A young woman (of noble birth).
- 2 a young unmarried woman wordnet
- 3 A girl; a maiden (without sexual experience).
- 4 A young woman who is not married.
- 5 An unmarried lady-in-waiting.
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- 6 A chattering damsel (component of a mill).
"The spout that conveys the grain from the hopper to the eye or centre of the upper millstone rests against the spindle, just at the damsel, and thus receives an alternate back and forward motion, […]"
Example
More examples"Actually I wanted to be a damsel in a tower guarded by seven dragons, and then a prince on a white horse would chop off the dragons' heads and liberate me."
Etymology
From Middle English dameisele, from Old French damoisele, from Vulgar Latin *domnicella, a diminutive from Classical Latin domina (“mistress, lady”), from dominus, from *demh₂-. Doublet of demoiselle, doncella, and donzella.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.