Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Offensive Used as a disparaging term for a woman who is no longer young and has not married.
  • noun Informal A person regarded as being primly fastidious.
  • noun A card game in which the player who holds a designated card at the end is the loser.
  • noun The loser of this game.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The house-or garden-plant Vinca rosea.
  • noun A gaping clam: same as gaper, 4.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pejorative An old woman who has never married; a spinster.
  • noun A particular kind of periwinkle.
  • noun A particular kind of zinnia.
  • noun An unpopped kernel in a batch of popped popcorn kernels.
  • noun A card game in which cards must be paired and one undesirable card is designated "old maid".
  • noun An unpaired card in that game.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun 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')
  • noun an elderly unmarried woman
  • noun the loser in a game of old maid
  • noun any of various plants of the genus Zinnia cultivated for their variously and brightly colored flower heads
  • noun commonly cultivated Old World woody herb having large pinkish to red flowers

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