Definition

Noun: 1. A personal maid or female attendant: A woman or girl employed to perform domestic tasks and provide personal service, historically in a household. 2. Something in a subordinate or auxiliary role: A person, thing, or concept that serves to support or facilitate a more important or primary function.

Examples

• Noun (Literal):
• Noun (Figurative):

Advanced Usage

• "Handmaiden to...": Used to describe something that serves as a necessary support or tool for a larger purpose, system, or ideology.
  • For centuries, logic was considered the handmaiden to theology.

Variants and Related Words

• Handmaid (noun): An alternative, and now more common, spelling of "handmaiden." Both forms are correct and interchangeable.
  • She worked as a handmaid in the royal court.

Synonyms

• Maid, maidservant, attendant, lady's maid (for the literal meaning).
• Servant, auxiliary, adjunct, aide, subordinate (for the figurative meaning).

Related Idioms

• To play handmaiden to: To act in a subservient or supportive role to something else.
  • The new policy seems to play handmaiden to corporate interests rather than public welfare.

Noun

1. a personal maid or female attendant
2. in a subordinate position
   • theology should be the handmaiden of ethics
   • the state cannot be a servant of the church