maid

old maid

1. dated A disparaging term for an older, unmarried woman. She had a few suitors in her youth, but now Edna is an old maid. My parents are pressuring me to get married—they don't want any of their daughters to become an old maid.
2. A fussy, prudish person. You better make sure the place settings are perfect, what with the old maid coming to dinner tonight.
3. A card game in which players pair matching cards and try to avoid being the last one holding the only card with no mate, dubbed the "old maid." When my kids were little, they loved playing old maid.
See also: maid, old
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

an old ˈmaid

(old-fashioned, disapproving) a woman who has never married and is now no longer young
See also: maid, old
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

maid of all work

The female equivalent of Jack of all trades.
See also: all, maid, of, work
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • an old maid
  • old maid
  • leader
  • ape leader
  • be mutton dressed as lamb
  • old woman
  • mutton dressed (up) as lamb
  • mutton dressed as lamb
  • titless wonder
  • damn Yankee
References in classic literature
She had washed behind her ears just as carefully, and when she entered her drawing room in her yellow dress, wearing her badge as maid of honor, her old lady's maid was as full of rapturous admiration as the Rostovs' servants had been.
Turning her mother's head this way and that, she fastened on the cap and, hurriedly kissing her gray hair, ran back to the maids who were turning up the hem of her skirt.
When Mother Maudlin comes to thank Maid Marian for her present, she is told that no such present was ever intended, and so she in anger curses the cook, casting spells upon him:
Robin soon meets Mother Maudlin who has again taken the form of Maid Marian.
"I don't care whether she likes it or not," replied Billina, and fluttering her wings with a loud noise she flew straight at the maid's face.
This muff, ever since the departure of Mr Jones, had been the constant companion of Sophia by day, and her bedfellow by night; and this muff she had at this very instant upon her arm; whence she took it off with great indignation, and, having writ her name with her pencil upon a piece of paper which she pinned to it, she bribed the maid to convey it into the empty bed of Mr Jones, in which, if he did not find it, she charged her to take some method of conveying it before his eyes in the morning.
Near to Jikiza, on his right hand, sat a fat man with small and twinkling eyes, who watched the maid Zinita greedily.
Louise de la Valliere shall be maid of honor to Madame Henrietta within a week."
Then she called her maids and said, "Stay where you are, you girls.
The maid produced the cloak and bonnet from the bedroom.
A short title, a taking title: 'Mistress and Maid.' Scene, the land of romance--Italy.
Later in the day the fourth candidate appeared for the maid's situation -- a young woman of small expectations and subdued manners, who looked (as the landlady remarked) like a person overtaken by misfortune.
Hordle John drew the back of his hand across his mouth, fixed his eyes upon the corner of the ceiling, and bellowed forth, in a voice which made the torches flicker, the southland ballad for which he had been asked:-- The franklin he hath gone to roam, The franklin's maid she bides at home, But she is cold and coy and staid, And who may win the franklin's maid?
Report, on coming out: "Sergeant Cuff is depressed in his spirits; but Sergeant Cuff is a perfect gentleman." My lady's own maid followed.
Tree Miss Hester Worsley, Miss Julia Neilson Alice, Maid, Miss Kelly Mrs.