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old maid

 - 4 dictionary results
Old Maid
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old maid

 
Use old maid in a Sentence
–noun
1. Usually Disparaging and Offensive. an elderly or confirmed spinster.
2. a fussy, timid, prudish person.
3. Cards.
a. a simple game, played with a deck having one card removed, in which the players draw from one another to match pairs and the one holding an odd queen at the end loses.
b. the loser of such a game.
Origin:
1520–30
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Old Maid
Old Maid available. Don't just Buy it - Win it!
www.eBay.com
old maid  
n.  

  1. Offensive A woman who has remained single beyond the conventional age for marrying.

  2. Informal A person regarded as being primly fastidious.

  3. Games

    1. A card game in which the player who holds a designated card at the end is the loser.

    2. The loser of this game.

  4. Chiefly Southern U.S. See zinnia.

old'-maid'ish (ōld'mā'dĭsh) adj.
zin·ni·a   (zĭn'ē-ə)   
n.  Any of various plants of the genus Zinnia, native to tropical America, especially Z. elegans, widely cultivated for its showy, rayed, variously colored flower heads. Also called regionally old maid, old maid flower.

[New Latin Zinnia, genus name, after Johann Gottfried Zinn (1727-1759), German botanist.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Encyclopedia

old maid

simple card game popular with young children. It takes its name from a 19th-century specially illustrated deck of cards showing colourful characters in matching pairs, plus a single old maid card. In Germany the equivalent game is called schwarzer Peter ("black Peter") and in France vieux garcon ("old boy").

Learn more about old maid with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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