Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Like a maid; modest.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Like a maiden; modest; coy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Like a maiden; gentle, demure.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective befitting or characteristic of a maiden

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From maiden +‎ -like.

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Examples

  • Then, perhaps feeling that she may have offended me, she quickly added: "Not of course that I doubt that there are maidenlike ladies in America."

    Walking-Stick Papers Robert Cortes Holliday

  • Ever and anon there gleamed across the young man’s mind a sense of wonder that he should be walking side by side with the being who had so wrought upon his imagination, whom he had idealized in such hues of terror, in whom he had positively witnessed such manifestations of dreadful attributes, —that he should be conversing with Beatrice like a brother, and should find her so human and so maidenlike.

    Rappaccini’s Daughter 1917

  • His eyes rested on the pure outline of her maidenlike face, and he was silent for a moment.

    Casa Braccio, Volumes 1 and 2 (of 2) J. Andr�� [Illustrator] Castaigne 1881

  • Ever and anon there gleamed across the young man's mind a sense of wonder that he should be walking side by side with the being who had so wrought upon his imagination, whom he had idealized in such hues of terror, in whom he had positively witnessed such manifestations of dreadful attributes, -- that he should be conversing with Beatrice like a brother, and should find her so human and so maidenlike.

    Rappaccini's Daughter 1846

  • That maidenlike friend of yours has taken possession of my bed, after your mother's routing me up as if I had been a stoat or a dormouse.

    The Buccaneer A Tale S. C. Hall 1840

  • Ever and anon there gleamed across the young man's mind a sense of wonder that he should be walking side by side with the being who had so wrought upon his imagination, whom he had idealized in such hues of terror, in whom he had positively witnessed such manifestations of dreadful attributes, -- that he should be conversing with Beatrice like a brother, and should find her so human and so maidenlike.

    Mosses from an Old Manse and other stories Nathaniel Hawthorne 1834

  • The simple and maidenlike heart of a youth long preserves gratitude for the first sweets of love!

    Pan Tadeusz Or, the Last Foray in Lithuania; a Story of Life Among Polish Gentlefolk in the Years 1811 and 1812 Adam Mickiewicz 1826

  • There was fear already, there was all her innocent maidenlike resistance, beating against him with might and anger, there was the feminine sense of injury by outrageous violence; but with it all there was also the natural woman's delight in the main strength of the natural man, that could kill her in an instant if he chose, but that could lift her to itself as a little child and surround her and protect her against the whole world.

    Casa Braccio, Volumes 1 and 2 (of 2) J. Andr�� [Illustrator] Castaigne 1881

  • a maidenlike modesty, as it were, even about her graceful bodily self, which belonged, in his imagination, to a saint upon an altar, rather than to a statue upon a pedestal.

    Casa Braccio, Volumes 1 and 2 (of 2) J. Andr�� [Illustrator] Castaigne 1881

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