handmaid, handmaiden, handemayden, hond mayden

[Eng. hand, and maid or maiden.] 1. Lit. A maid who waits at hand; a female servant or attendant. "And Mary seide, lo the hond may den of the Lord."Wycliffe: Luke i. 2. Fig .: An attendant, an a istant, a helper. "Nature, employed in her allotted place, Is handmaid to the purposes of grace." Cowper : Hope , 146.