Maiden - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: maidenMaiden
Maiden, A young unmarried woman. 2. (Scots Law) An instrument used to behead criminals. It was the proto type of the guillotine. Hence, 'to kiss the maiden was to be put to death.' H. Percy Smith, Glossary of Terms and Phrases 307 (1883), Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 963.It is an instrument formerly used in Scotland for beheading criminals. It consisted of a broad piece of iron about a foot square, very sharp in the lower part, and loaded above with lead. At the time of execution it was pulled up to the top of a frame about eight feet high, with a grove on each side for it to slide in. the prisoner'' neck being fastened to a bar underneath, and the sign being given, the maiden was let and the sign being given, the maiden was let loose, and the head served from the body. The prototype of the guillotine....
iron maiden
An instrument of torture used in the middle ages consisting of a box large enough to hold a person often in the shape of a woman and having multiple sharp spikes on the inside Called also the iron maiden of Nuremberg...
maiden aunt
Literally an aunt who has never been married Figuratively it is a term used as the prototype of a person who is broadly naive and not wise in worldly ways as he knows as much about programming as my maiden aunt...
Maidenly
Like a maid suiting a maid maiden like gentle modest reserved...
Maiden rents
Maiden rents, a noble paid by the tenants of some manors on their marriage. This was said to be given to the lord for his omitting the custom of mercheta, whereby he was to have the first night's lodgings with his tenant's wife; but it seems more probably to have been a fine for licence to marry a daughter, Jac. Law Dict....
Maiden speech
Maiden speech, is one's first or earliest speech especially in Parliament, Webster's American Dictionary, p. 883.It is the first speech which a member makes in the House of Commons, Parliamentary Dictionary, L.A. Abraham and S.C. Hawtrey, 1956, p. 117....
Capillaire
A sirup prepared from the maiden hair formerly supposed to have medicinal properties...
Colleen
A girl a maiden...
Crants
A garland carried before the bier of a maiden...
Maid
An unmarried woman usually a young unmarried woman esp a girl a virgin a maiden...
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