OLD MAID

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does old maid mean? 

• OLD MAID (noun)
  The noun OLD MAID has 5 senses:

1. an elderly unmarried woman

2. any of various plants of the genus Zinnia cultivated for their variously and brightly colored flower heads

3. commonly cultivated Old World woody herb having large pinkish to red flowers

4. the loser in a game of old maid

5. a card game using a pack of cards from which one queen has been removed; players match cards and the player holding the unmatched queen at the end of the game is the loser (or 'old maid')

  Familiarity information: OLD MAID used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OLD MAID (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An elderly unmarried woman

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

old maid; spinster

Hypernyms ("old maid" is a kind of...):

unmarried woman (a woman who is not married)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of various plants of the genus Zinnia cultivated for their variously and brightly colored flower heads

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

old maid; old maid flower; zinnia

Hypernyms ("old maid" is a kind of...):

flower (a plant cultivated for its blooms or blossoms)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "old maid"):

white zinnia; Zinnia acerosa (subshrub with slender woolly stems and long narrow leaves and flower heads with white rays; southern United States and northern Mexico)

little golden zinnia; Zinnia grandiflora (subshrub having short leafy stems and numerous small flower heads with nearly round yellow-orange rays; Arizona south to Mexico and east to Kansas)

Holonyms ("old maid" is a member of...):

genus Zinnia (genus of annual or perennial plants of tropical America having solitary heads of brightly colored flowers)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Commonly cultivated Old World woody herb having large pinkish to red flowers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

Cape periwinkle; Catharanthus roseus; cayenne jasmine; Madagascar periwinkle; old maid; periwinkle; red periwinkle; rose periwinkle; Vinca rosea

Hypernyms ("old maid" is a kind of...):

herb; herbaceous plant (a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests)

Holonyms ("old maid" is a member of...):

Catharanthus; genus Catharanthus (small genus of erect annual or perennial herbs native to Madagascar; widely naturalized in the tropics; formerly included in genus Vinca)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The loser in a game of old maid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("old maid" is a kind of...):

also-ran; loser (a contestant who loses the contest)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A card game using a pack of cards from which one queen has been removed; players match cards and the player holding the unmatched queen at the end of the game is the loser (or 'old maid')

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("old maid" is a kind of...):

card game; cards (a game played with playing cards)

 Context examples 

An old maid, that's what I'm to be.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But still, you will be an old maid! and that's so dreadful!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Jane will be quite an old maid soon, I declare.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Indeed, they had quite settled among themselves that she never was to be married, and they called her the old maid.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"I mean that she is not to die an old maid if I can help it," was the answer.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

One day out in a country lane I met Theresa Wright, her old maid.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But then, to be an old maid at last, like Miss Bates!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Nobody will want me, and it's a mercy, for there should always be one old maid in a family.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The younger girls formed hopes of coming out a year or two sooner than they might otherwise have done; and the boys were relieved from their apprehension of Charlotte's dying an old maid.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Never mind, Harriet, I shall not be a poor old maid; and it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible to a generous public!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)