Housemaid
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A female domestic worker responsible for cleaning a house.
"With a dramatic gesture, he pointed to a large splash of candle grease on the floor by the writing-table. "It must have been done since yesterday, otherwise a good housemaid would have at once removed it with blotting-paper and a hot iron. […]”"
- 2 a female domestic wordnet
- 3 A housewife. derogatory
- 1 To be a housemaid.
- 2 To wait on someone hand on foot, to watch them.
- 3 To clean, as a housemaid.
"Giving that up, she took a broom and a duster and went upstairs to housemaid Mrs Dibble's bedroom, with her head tied up in a coloured scarf. It was a dusty, snuffy job, for penuriousness in Mrs Dibble refused to throw anything away, including dirt, and if anything fell on the floor it remained there."
Example
More examples"That's what I call a self-evident proposition, as the dog's-meat man said, when the housemaid told him he warn't a gentleman."
Etymology
From house + maid.
Related phrases
More for "housemaid"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.