lady's maid

lady’s maid (plural lady's maids)

1. A female servant employed by an upper-class woman to attend to her personal needs.
   • 1735, Anonymous, The Rake’s Progress; or, the Humours of Drury-Lane, London: J. Chettwood, Canto V, p. 35,

     A pretty Girl, the Lady’s Maid,

     Who all her Dress in Order Laid,

     Behind her Mistress simp’ring stood,

     And rais’d the youthful ’Squires Blood.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter 12,

     He stopped, ran his eye over my dress, which, as usual, was quite simple: a black merino cloak, a black beaver bonnet; neither of them half fine enough for a lady’s-maid.

   • 1881, Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, Chapter 36,

     […] the servant, a neat, plain woman, with a French face and a lady’s maid’s manner, ushered him into a diminutive drawing-room and requested the favour of his name.

   • 1915, H. G. Wells, Bealby, Chapter I, Section 1,

     The cat is the offspring of a cat and the dog of a dog, but butlers and lady’s maids do not reproduce their kind. They have other duties.

   • 1922, Emily Post, Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home, Chapter 12,

     A first class lady’s maid is required to be a hairdresser, a good packer and an expert needlewoman. Her first duty is to keep her lady's clothes in order and to help her dress, and undress.