2. The state of being unused or uncontaminated; freshness; purity. [Obs.]
The maidenhead of their credit.
Sir H. Wotton. 3. The hymen, or virginal membrane.
Maidenhood
(Maid"en*hood) n. [AS. mægdenhad. See Maid, and -hood.]
1. The state of being a maid or a virgin; virginity. Shak.
2. Newness; freshness; uncontaminated state.
The maidenhood
Of thy fight.
Shak. Maidenlike
(Maid"en*like`) a. Like a maiden; modest; coy.
Maidenliness
(Maid"en*li*ness) n. The quality of being maidenly; the behavior that becomes a maid; modesty; gentleness.
Maidenly
(Maid"en*ly), a. Like a maid; suiting a maid; maiden-like; gentle, modest, reserved.
Must you be blushing ? . . .
What a maidenly man-at-arms are you become !
Shak. Maidenly
(Maid"en*ly), adv. In a maidenlike manner. "Maidenly demure." Skelton.
Maidenship
(Maid"en*ship), n. Maidenhood. [Obs.] Fuller.
Maidhood
(Maid"hood) n. [AS. mægðhad. See Maid, and -hood.] Maidenhood. Shak.
Maidmarian
(Maid`ma"ri*an) n. [Maid + Marian, relating to Mary, or the Virgin Mary.]
1. The lady of the May games; one of the characters in a morris dance; a May queen. Afterward, a grotesque
character personated in sports and buffoonery by a man in woman's clothes.
2. A kind of dance. Sir W. Temple.
Maidpale
(Maid"pale`) a. Pale, like a sick girl. Shak.
Maidservant
(Maid"serv`ant) n. A female servant.
Maid's hair
(Maid's" hair`) (Bot.) The yellow bedstraw
Maieutic
(Ma*ieu"tic) Maieutical
(Ma*ieu"tic*al) a. [Gr. maieytiko`s, fr. mai^a midwife.]
1. Serving to assist childbirth. Cudworth.
2. Fig. : Aiding, or tending to, the definition and interpretation of thoughts or language. Payne.
Maieutics
(Ma*ieu"tics) n. The art of giving birth (i. e., clearness and conviction) to ideas, which are
conceived as struggling for birth. Payne.
Maiger
(Mai"ger) n. (Zoöl.) The meagre.
Maigre
(Mai"gre) a. [F. See Meager.] Belonging to a fast day or fast; as, a maigre day. Walpole.
Maigre food (R. C. Ch.), food allowed to be eaten on fast days.
Maihem
(Mai"hem) n. See Maim, and Mayhem.
