housemaid
(ˈhaʊsmeɪd)
a. A female domestic servant, having charge especially of the reception-rooms and bed-rooms.
| 1694 Dunton's Ladies Dict. 183/2 House-Maids, Your principal Office is to make clean the greatest part of the House;..so that you suffer no room to lie foul. c 1731 Swift Direct. Servants Wks. 1814 XII. 399 The house⁓maid may put out her candle by running it against the looking-glass. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. vii. iv, The House⁓maid, with early broom. |
b. attrib.| 1833 Lady Granville Lett. (1894) II. 144 There is a vulgar, housemaid, common look in her features. 1884 Girl's Own Paper Nov. 58/1 The ‘housemaid skirt’, with its straight folds, lack of gores, and three or four tucks at the edge, seems to be..worn..by all the young girls. |
c. housemaid's knee: an inflammation of the bursa over the knee-cap, induced by kneeling on hard floors. (
Syd. Soc. Lex. 1886.)
| 1831 Lond. Med. & Physical Jrnl. LXVII. 42 The third of the cases..was of the common description: the bursa very slightly thickened, but distended with fluid, uneasy, and painful, the most ordinary state of the housemaid's knee. 1889 J. K. Jerome Three Men in Boat i. 3 The only malady I could conclude I had not got was housemaid's knee. 1912 Adami & McCrae Text-bk. Path. xii. 678 ‘Housemaid's knee’, ‘miner's elbow’, and ‘weaver's bottom’ are all well-known forms of bursitis. 1971 Daily Tel. 19 Apr. 2 Occupational rheumatism known by a variety of names like weaver's bottom, housemaid's knee, and golfer's shoulder, is costing the country..millions of pounds a year. |
d. Other collocations containing the possessive form, as
housemaid's box, a box with a container for ashes and a tray above for brushes, dusters, etc.;
housemaid's closet,
housemaid's cupboard, a cupboard or small room where brooms, cleaning materials, etc., are kept, slops emptied, etc.,
housemaid's gloves, gloves worn for protection when cleaning grates, etc.
| 1861 Mrs. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. 988 Her *housemaid's box, containing black-lead brushes..and all utensils necessary for cleaning a grate. 1909 H. G. Wells Tono-Bungay iii. i. 266 Housemaid's boxes it'll be a pleasure to fall over. 1950 J. Cannan Murder Included viii. 146 Sylvia, carrying a housemaid's box, fled at their approach. |
| 1857 C. M. Yonge Dynevor Terrace I. xiv. 229 Mrs. Martha might some day let her stand in the *housemaid's closet, to behold her idol issue forth in the full glory of an evening dress. 1873 ― Pillars of House II. xix. 162 From a housemaid's closet half-way up, Alda was bringing to light a basin. 1906 M. H. Baillie-Scott Houses & Gardens x. 31 The housemaid's closet with its slop sink and spaces for pails and brooms. 1911 L. Weaver House & its Equipment 103 In small houses where there is not a housemaid's closet. 1950 J. Cannan Murder Included iii. 55 There's a sort of housemaids' closet just at the head of the main staircase, and..they had an electric heater put in there so that the housemaid could make the early morning tea for everybody. |
| 1873 L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) vi. 52 He..spent nearly all the evening sulking and sobbing in the sink (in the *housemaid's cupboard). 1952 G. Raverat Period Piece iv. 68 They..used to cry..in the housemaids' cupboard. |
| 1863 Dickens Uncomm. Trav. (1866) xxvii. 194/2 A tall straight sallow lady..who does her household work in *housemaid's gloves. 1962 G. Avery Greatest Gresham vii. 132 Mabel..wearing housemaid's gloves, was cleaning the brass. |
Hence (chiefly
nonce-wds.)
ˈhouseˌmaidenhood (after
maidenhood), the personality or honour of a housemaid.
ˈhouseˌmaidenly a. (after
maidenly), of or belonging to a housemaid.
ˈhousemaiding, housemaid's work.
| 1859 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 17, I had a deal of housemaiding to execute during the week. 1876 Mrs. Oliphant Curate in Charge (ed. 5) I. iii. 62 That's why the girls have so much housemaiding to do. 1878 Besant & Rice Celia's Arb. II. xiii. 210 The domestic mop used to be..a weapon for the defence of housemaidenhood. 1893 ‘B. Abbotsford’ But 49 A housemaid without the housemaidenly cap. |