maiden voyage

maiden voyage

1. The first time a vehicle, especially a boat or ship, departs on a journey. My parents bought my a car for my birthday! I can't wait to take it out on its maiden voyage. The Queen attended the maiden voyage of the new Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier.
2. By extension, the first time one experiences or goes through something. This is the quarterback's maiden voyage in the Super Bowl.
See also: maiden, voyage
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

maiden voyage

Fig. the first voyage of a ship or boat. The liner sank on its maiden voyage. Jim is taking his yacht on its maiden voyage.
See also: maiden, voyage
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

maiden voyage

The first experience, as in This tennis tournament is my maiden voyage in statewide competition. This term, originally meaning the first voyage of a ship, was first recorded in 1901, but the use of maiden to signify "the first time" dates from the mid-1500s.
See also: maiden, voyage
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • voyage
  • road trip
  • roadtrip
  • rush through
  • have a safe journey
  • make sail
  • set sail for (some place)
  • set sail
  • go down the rabbit hole
  • rabbit hole
References in periodicals archive
One ship's hotel manager told us maiden voyages draw inaugural junkies for oddball reasons--such as those who simply love to sleep on spanking new bed sheets or dine on dinnerware no one has touched before.
The Aquitania on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York in 1914
While he would give nothing away about the extent of his investment in the project, Palmer said that he has received offers of up to USD1m per ticket for passage on the ship's maiden voyage.
Mr Vittoria, former head of car hire firm Avis, is today taking Mirabella on its maiden voyage heading for Naples - the home town of his wife Luciana.
The ship went down in the Atlantic on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York after hitting an iceberg.
Queen Victoria was last in Liverpool on her maiden voyage in 2010.
The liner set off on its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912 - but of course, it was to be its only voyage after it got into difficulties after it hit that fateful iceberg.
The newest ship in Saga's fleet should have been setting out on her maiden voyage - a three-week cruise to Venice, Dubrovnik and the Adriatic - next Monday.
German airline Lufthansa announced on Wednesday that its new Airbus A380 aircraft made its maiden voyage from Toulouse over the south of France on Tuesday.
HISTORY fans will get the chance to retrace the Titanic's doomed maiden voyage on a centenary cruise.
A LUXURY British cruise ship sold every place on its maiden voyage within half an hour of going on sale - despite charging up to pounds 15,799 per person.
She was the Chessington and she made Thames history when she passed under 17 bridges across the river during her maiden voyage from the Tyne, carrying 2,500 tons of coal.
1838: Isambard Kingdom Brunel's steamship Great Western began her maiden voyage to New York: 'He'll have us going to the moon yet' muttered one of Brunel's directors, when the great engineer suggested that they constructed a railway that went all the way from Britain to New York, calling the link Great Western.
The Military Traffic Management Command moved a pair of the vessels from Norfolk, Va., to Bremerhaven, Germany, on the maiden voyage of the Tamesis, of the Wallenius Lines.
It aims to move beyond re-telling the tale of that fateful maiden voyage in 1912, and unravel some previously untold, more unusual strands of the story.