bridesmaid

From bride +‎ -s- +‎ maid.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹaɪdzˌmeɪd/

bridesmaid (plural bridesmaids)

1. A woman who attends a bride during her wedding ceremony, as part of the main wedding party.

   I'd love to be your bridesmaid.

2. (sports, entertainment) A person or team who perennially finishes well, but never first.

• bridesman

• always a bridesmaid, never a bride

• maid of honor the primary bridesmaid
• bridesmaids the group of women as a whole

bridesmaid (third-person singular simple present bridesmaids, present participle bridesmaiding, simple past and past participle bridesmaided)

1. To act as a bridesmaid for; to attend a bride during her wedding ceremony.
   • 1858, Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne‎, volume 1, page 83:

     "No, Trichy; I won't be Augusta's bridesmaid; I'll bide my time for bridesmaiding."

   • 1915, George Jean Nathan, Henry Louis Mencken, The smart set: a magazine of cleverness, Volume 45, page 204,

     And what's this? that isn't Herbie Frost with you in the canoe ; why he was best man when I bridesmaided Corinne.

   • 1989, Kevin Killian, Shy‎, page 233:

     "It's in my Data-fax, right here! December Bride: and I'm supposed to bridesmaid!"

   • 2007, Siri Agrell, Bad Bridesmaid: True Tales of Bachelorette Brawls and Taffeta Tantrums‎, page 150:

     After ten years of friendship and just six months of lackluster bridesmaiding, the women did not even get an invitation to the wedding.

   • 2010, Mark Townsend, Jesus Outside the Box: Twelve Spiritual Tales of the Unexpected‎, page 308:

     Still they bridesmaided for her.

• bridemaids