HANDMAID

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does handmaid mean? 

• HANDMAID (noun)
  The noun HANDMAID has 2 senses:

1. in a subordinate position

2. a personal maid or female attendant

  Familiarity information: HANDMAID used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HANDMAID (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In a subordinate position

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

handmaid; handmaiden; servant

Context example:

the state cannot be a servant of the church

Hypernyms ("handmaid" is a kind of...):

subordinateness; subsidiarity (secondary importance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A personal maid or female attendant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

handmaid; handmaiden

Hypernyms ("handmaid" is a kind of...):

amah; housemaid; maid; maidservant (a female domestic)

 Context examples 

I have dismissed, with the fee of an orange, the little orphan who serves me as a handmaid.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

My aunt's handmaid, as I supposed she was from what she had said, put her rice in a little basket and walked out of the shop; telling me that I could follow her, if I wanted to know where Miss Trotwood lived.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)