Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Maid \Maid\, n. [Shortened from maiden. ?. See {Maiden}.]
1. An unmarried woman; usually, a young unmarried woman;
esp., a girl; a virgin; a maiden.
Would I had died a maid, And never seen thee, never
borne thee son. --Shak.
Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her
attire? Yet my people have forgotten me. --Jer. ii.
32.
2. A man who has not had sexual intercourse. [Obs.]
Christ was a maid and shapen as a man. --Chaucer.
3. A female servant.
Spinning amongst her maids. --Shak.
Note: Maid is used either adjectively or in composition,
signifying female, as in maid child, maidservant.
4. (Zo["o]l.) The female of a ray or skate, esp. of the gray
skate ({Raia batis}), and of the thornback ({R. clavata}).
[Prov. Eng.]
{Fair maid}. (Zo["o]l.) See under {Fair}, a.
{Maid of honor}, a female attendant of a queen or royal
princess; -- usually of noble family, and having to
perform only nominal or honorary duties.
{Old maid}. See under {Old}.
Skate \Skate\, n. [Icel. skata; cf. Prov. G. schatten,
meer-schatten, L. squatus, squatina, and E. shad.] (Zo["o]l.)
Any one of numerous species of large, flat elasmobranch
fishes of the genus {Raia}, having a long, slender tail,
terminated by a small caudal fin. The pectoral fins, which
are large and broad and united to the sides of the body and
head, give a somewhat rhombic form to these fishes. The skin
is more or less spinose.
Note: Some of the species are used for food, as the European
blue or gray skate ({Raia batis}), which sometimes
weighs nearly 200 pounds. The American smooth, or
barn-door, skate ({R. l[ae]vis}) is also a large
species, often becoming three or four feet across. The
common spiny skate ({R. erinacea}) is much smaller.
{Skate's egg}. See {Sea purse}.
{Skate sucker}, any marine leech of the genus {Pontobdella},
parasitic on skates.