bridesmaid

• bridemaid (archaic)
• bride's maid

From bride +‎ -s- +‎ maid. Sports/entertainment sense: in reference to the saying always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹaɪdzˌmeɪd/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

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 at the wedding.

   • 1994, Richard Curtis, Four Weddings and a Funeral, spoken by Lydia (Sophie Thompson):

     I was promised sex. Everybody said it. You'll be a bridesmaid, you'll get sex, you'll be fighting 'em off. But not so much as a tongue in sight.

2. (sports, entertainment, social dynamics) A person or team that perennially finishes well, but never first.
   • 2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 319:

     He had taken her for a dogsbody, a beta fish, a bridesmaid, a ride-along; he had looked right past her, as likely many people did.

• bridesman

• always a bridesmaid, never a bride
• junior bridesmaid

• bridesmaiden
• bridesmatron

• 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