Definition of "maidenly" []

• Of, relating to, or suitable for a maiden. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "We see, then, that pre-conjugal chastity and also a "maidenly" reserve and bashfulness are, when monosexual dominance prevails, displayed only by members of the subject sex."
• "Perhaps she had not that kind of maidenly shyness, sometimes called conventional propriety, sometimes described as 'mauvaise honte' which a woman of the world would have shown."
• "Pentfield wrote back heartily, laughing at her fears, which he took to be the mere physical ones of danger and hardship rather than those bred of maidenly reserve."