bridesmaid
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
See also: bride's maid
English
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/StateLibQld_1_138236_James_Wieneke_as_best_man_at_a_friend%27s_wedding%2C_ca._1936.jpg/220px-StateLibQld_1_138236_James_Wieneke_as_best_man_at_a_friend%27s_wedding%2C_ca._1936.jpg)
Alternative forms
Etymology
From bride + -s- + maid. Sports/entertainment sense: in reference to the saying always a bridesmaid, never a bride.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈbɹaɪdzˌmeɪd/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
bridesmaid (plural bridesmaids)
- A woman who attends a bride during her wedding ceremony, as part of the main wedding party.
- I'd love to be your bridesmaid at the wedding.
- 1994, Richard Curtis, Four Weddings and a Funeral, spoken by Lydia (Sophie Thompson):
- I was promised sex. Everybody said it. You'll be a bridesmaid, you'll get sex, you'll be fighting 'em off. But not so much as a tongue in sight.
- (sports, entertainment, social dynamics) A person or team that perennially finishes well, but never first.
- 2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 319:
- He had taken her for a dogsbody, a beta fish, a bridesmaid, a ride-along; he had looked right past her, as likely many people did.
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
woman who attends the bride at a wedding ceremony
|
See also
- maid of honor (the primary bridesmaid)
- bridesmaids (the group of women as a whole)
Verb
bridesmaid (third-person singular simple present bridesmaids, present participle bridesmaiding, simple past and past participle bridesmaided)
- To act as a bridesmaid for; to attend a bride during her wedding ceremony.
- 1858, Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne[1], volume 1, page 83:
- "No, Trichy; I won't be Augusta's bridesmaid; I'll bide my time for bridesmaiding."
- 1915, George Jean Nathan, Henry Louis Mencken, The smart set: a magazine of cleverness, volume 45, page 204:
- And what's this? that isn't Herbie Frost with you in the canoe ; why he was best man when I bridesmaided Corinne.
- 1989, Kevin Killian, Shy[2], page 233:
- "It's in my Data-fax, right here! December Bride: and I'm supposed to bridesmaid!"
- 2007, Siri Agrell, Bad Bridesmaid: True Tales of Bachelorette Brawls and Taffeta Tantrums[3], page 150:
- After ten years of friendship and just six months of lackluster bridesmaiding, the women did not even get an invitation to the wedding.
- 2010, Mark Townsend, Jesus Outside the Box: Twelve Spiritual Tales of the Unexpected[4], page 308:
- Still they bridesmaided for her.
Translations
act as a bridesmaid (for)
Anagrams
Categories:
- English terms interfixed with -s-
- English compound terms
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- en:Sports
- English verbs
- en:Marriage
- en:Female people