barmaid
(ˈbɑːmeɪd)
[f. bar n.1 28.]
A female who sells food and drink at the bar of a tavern or hotel. Also attrib. and fig.
| a 1658 [see stroke v.1 4]. 1772 Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. Epil., Th' unblushing Bar⁓maid at a country inn. 1837 Dickens Pickw. (1847) 9/2 The bar-maid had positively refused to draw him any more liquor. 1880 Lady Jebb Let. 3 June (1960) 159 She is lovelier than ever, in an exquisite highbred way, which throws such a barmaid beauty as Mrs. Fred. Myers completely in the shade. 1911 Masefield Everl. Mercy 24 And then men ask, Are Barmaids chaste? |
Hence barmaidenly a.
| 1881 Daily News 8 June 5 Bar-maidenly in their conception of polished badinage. 1905 G. B. Shaw in Sat. Rev. 11 Feb. 170/2 The merry lady with her barmaidenly repartees. 1932 Times Lit. Suppl. 27 Oct. 776/4 She was what some one once styled a ‘barmaidenly maiden’. |