Lady-in-waiting

//ˌleɪdɪ ɪn ˈweɪtɪŋ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A lady, often a noblewoman, in the household of a queen, princess, or other woman of higher rank who attends her as a personal assistant, generally a role considered an honour.

    "[T]he electreſs [Sophia Charlotte of Hanover] was heard to ſay to one of her ladies in waiting, "that it vexed her to the very heart to go and act in Pruſſia the theatrical queen along with her Eſop.["]"

  2. 2
    a lady appointed to attend to a queen or princess wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
amahau pair girlbiddychambermaidchaperoncompanion

Example

More examples

"[T]he electreſs [Sophia Charlotte of Hanover] was heard to ſay to one of her ladies in waiting, "that it vexed her to the very heart to go and act in Pruſſia the theatrical queen along with her Eſop.["]"

Etymology

From lady + in + waiting (“attendance, service”). (Waiting in the sense of a waiter, not passing time.)

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