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HOUSEMAID
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A female domestic
Synonyms:
amah; housemaid; maid; maidservant
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("housemaid" is a kind of...):
domestic; domestic help; house servant (a servant who is paid to perform menial tasks around the household)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "housemaid"):
chambermaid; fille de chambre (a maid who is employed to clean and care for bedrooms (now primarily in hotels))
handmaid; handmaiden (a personal maid or female attendant)
lady's maid (a maid who is a lady's personal attendant)
parlormaid; parlourmaid (a maid in a private home whose duties are to care for the parlor and the table and to answer the door)
Context examples:
To Milverton’s housemaid.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She longed to see Mrs. Phillips, the Lucases, and all their other neighbours, and to hear herself called Mrs. Wickham by each of them; and in the mean time, she went after dinner to show her ring, and boast of being married, to Mrs. Hill and the two housemaids.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
They were now on the second floor, and the appearance of a housemaid prevented any farther conversation.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
She is a person we have to sew and assist Leah in her housemaid's work, continued the widow; not altogether unobjectionable in some points, but she does well enough.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The housemaid, Saunders.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Lord! how snug they might live in such another cottage as yours—or a little bigger—with two maids, and two men; and I believe I could help them to a housemaid, for my Betty has a sister out of place, that would fit them exactly.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
She examined into their employments, looked at their work, and advised them to do it differently; found fault with the arrangement of the furniture; or detected the housemaid in negligence; and if she accepted any refreshment, seemed to do it only for the sake of finding out that Mrs. Collins's joints of meat were too large for her family.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
The housemaid's folding back her window-shutters at eight o'clock the next day was the sound which first roused Catherine; and she opened her eyes, wondering that they could ever have been closed, on objects of cheerfulness; her fire was already burning, and a bright morning had succeeded the tempest of the night.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
The blinds were not down, for the room was seldom used in the evening, but Mrs. Barclay herself lit the lamp and then rang the bell, asking Jane Stewart, the housemaid, to bring her a cup of tea, which was quite contrary to her usual habits.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She wondered that Sir Thomas could have leisure to think of such a trifle again; but she soon found, from the voluntary information of the housemaid, who came in to attend it, that so it was to be every day.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
