maidenhead

noun

1. (countable, literally)The hymen.

   “Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt.”

2. (metonymically, uncountable)Virginity.

   “Put in but little Silver or Gold, for if you do, you quite spoil the Compoſition ; but inſtead thereof, add of Tradeſmens Bills for Cloaths, to the Value of 100 l. [¶] Laſtly, Take away the Girl's Maidenhead, and then the Compoſition is fit for Uſe.”

   “Gallants, a bashful poet bids me say, He's come to lose his maidenhead to-day. Be not too fierce; for he's but green of age, And ne'er, till now, debauch'd upon the stage.”

   “My lord,[…]/ I brought you nothing else it may be said / But faith and nakedness and maidenhead.”

   “She prayed to Pallas, and by her help escaped from him in the form of a crow, rejoicing more to keep her maidenhead white under the blackness of the feathers than to lose it and be adorned with the fairest pearls.”

   “So the reference to the plucking of the ginger flower is again an indirect allusion to the taking of the girl's maidenhead .”

name

1. A town in Windsor and Maidenhead borough, Berkshire, England (OS grid ref SU8881).

   “A short time since, some friends drinking tea one summer evening at their residence near Maidenhead, with all the windows of the drawing-room open, there suddenly burst in a host of small flies, which covered the table and the furniture […]”