Definition

1. Noun:
   • An elderly unmarried woman: The primary meaning refers to a woman, typically older, who has never been married. This term is often considered dated and can carry a negative or pejorative connotation.
   • A card game: A simple matching card game for children, traditionally played with a standard deck from which one queen has been removed. The player left holding the unmatched queen at the end loses and is called the "old maid."
   • A plant: Refers to certain cultivated flowering plants, specifically the rose campion (Silene coronaria, formerly Lychnis coronaria) or various brightly colored flowers of the genus Zinnia.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Person):
  • In the old novel, the kind but lonely character was described as an old maid.
  • The derogatory term "old maid" is less commonly used today.
• Noun (Game):
  • The children spent the afternoon playing a round of old maid.
  • In old maid, the goal is to avoid being the player left with the single queen.
• Noun (Plant):
  • The garden was full of colorful old maids, also known as zinnias.
  • She planted old maid by the fence for a splash of pink.

Advanced Usage

• "Old-maidish" (adjective): Behaving in a manner considered prudish, fussy, or overly cautious, stereotypically associated with an elderly unmarried woman.
  • He criticized her old-maidish concerns about propriety.

Variants and Related Words

• Spinster: A close synonym for an unmarried woman, often carrying similar connotations. Historically, "spinster" was a legal term, while "old maid" is more colloquial.
• Old maid (game): The name of the game itself is a compound noun derived from the primary meaning.
• Zinnia: The botanical name for one type of flower called "old maid."
• Rose campion: The common name for another flower called "old maid."

Synonyms

• For the person: Spinster, bachelorette (though "bachelorette" is usually neutral and not age-specific).
• For the game: Card-matching game (descriptive).
• For the plant: Zinnia, rose campion (specific).

Related Phrases

• Left an old maid: An idiom meaning to remain unmarried until an advanced age.
  • Her family feared she would be left an old maid.

Idioms

• Play old maid: Can literally mean to play the card game. Figuratively, it can refer to being in a situation where one is trying to avoid being the odd one out or the loser.
  • At the company merger, several departments felt they were playing old maid, hoping not to be the one eliminated.

Noun

1. a card game using a pack of cards from which one queen has been removed; players match cards and the player holding the unmatched queen at the end of the game is the loser (or `old maid')
2. the loser in a game of old maid
3. commonly cultivated Old World woody herb having large pinkish to red flowers
4. any of various plants of the genus Zinnia cultivated for their variously and brightly colored flower heads
5. an elderly unmarried woman