housemaid

noun

house·​maid ˈhau̇s-ˌmād How to pronounce housemaid (audio)
: a girl or woman who is a servant employed to do housework

Example Sentences

became both nurse and housemaid to the elderly man
Recent Examples on the Web Yang Qingming, 69, worked as a housemaid and never qualified for employee insurance. Keith Bradsher, New York Times, 23 Feb. 2023 The White Ribbon was Leonine Benesch’s breakout, but the German actress gained a wider audience with her turn as Greta, the naive housemaid caught up in a Nazi conspiracy in hit German series Babylon Berlin. Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Dec. 2022 Her job included dressing in costume to portray Caroline Branham, an enslaved housemaid, when greeting tourists on the grounds. Jill Abramson, The New Yorker, 7 Mar. 2022 Pelé had at least six children among his marriages and other relationships, including daughter Sandra from an affair with a housemaid. Liz Clarke, Washington Post, 29 Dec. 2022 Van Druten was writing the screenplay for Gaslight, the story of a husband slowly driving his wife into madness with the help of a young Cockney housemaid. Stuart Emmrich, Vogue, 11 Oct. 2022 The poem isn’t diminished by learning that Vivien wrote wonderful next to the nervy wife’s dialogue in the manuscript, or that the cockney monologue at the end of the same section was modeled after the speech of the Eliots’ housemaid, Ellen Kellond. Christopher Tayler, Harper’s Magazine , 17 Aug. 2022 His mother, Nina (McGlone) Vann, a former sharecropper, worked as a housemaid and in a factory before opening a grocery store. New York Times, 20 July 2022 Elizabeth was first his housemaid and then his second wife. oregonlive, 27 May 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'housemaid.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

First Known Use

1673, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of housemaid was in 1673

Dictionary Entries Near housemaid

Cite this Entry

“Housemaid.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/housemaid. Accessed 23 Mar. 2023.

Kids Definition

housemaid

noun
house·​maid ˈhau̇-ˌsmād How to pronounce housemaid (audio)
: a girl or woman hired to do housework

More from Merriam-Webster on housemaid

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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