handmaiden

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
17
Words With Friends
19
Letters
10

Definition of handmaiden

2 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of handmaid.
    “Online and over Shabbat dinners, arguments about the election have grown bitter. Those grudgingly planning to vote for Labour have been called traitors to the community and self-hating Jews. Anti-Corbyn die-hards, on the other hand, have been branded the handmaidens of a hard Brexit.”
See all 2 definitions

noun

  1. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of handmaid.
    “Online and over Shabbat dinners, arguments about the election have grown bitter. Those grudgingly planning to vote for Labour have been called traitors to the community and self-hating Jews. Anti-Corbyn die-hards, on the other hand, have been branded the handmaidens of a hard Brexit.”
  2. (derogatory)A cisgender woman who supports transgender rights.
    “The fact that it is not possible to be seen as a supporter of trans people's human rights, as all feminists are or at least should be, unless we fully capitulate and take the metaphorical – and sometimes literal – boot in the face shows how extreme trans activists, enabled by their handmaiden allies, are nothing but a misogynistic men’s rights movement.”
    “Solidarity with trans people but not women[,] I note[,] Angela. Especially the boring ones who fought for rights that you now enjoy. Enjoy being a handmaiden.”
    “I have been called a handmaiden, a “pick me” girl, and been accused of vying for male attention.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English hande mayden, handmaiden, hand mayden, hand-mayden, handmayden, hondemaiden, hond maydyn, hoondmaydyn. By surface analysis, hand + maiden. Sense 2 is an allusion to Canadian writer Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985), in which "handmaids" are women who serve the male commanders in a patriarchal dystopia.

Words you can make from handmaiden

183 playable · top: HANDMADE (15 pts)

Best play handmade 15 points

8-letter words

2 words

7-letter words

2 words

6-letter words

24 words

5-letter words

33 words

4-letter words

51 words

3-letter words

46 words

2-letter words

24 words

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

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