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Webster 1913 Edition


Maenad


Mae′nad

,
Noun.
[L.
Maenas
,
-adis
, Gr. [GREEK], [GREEK], fr. [GREEK] to rave.]
1.
A Bacchante; a priestess or votary of Bacchus.
2.
A frantic or frenzied woman.

Definition 2024


maenad

maenad

See also: mænad

English

Noun

maenad (plural maenads or maenades)

Furious maenad
  1. (Greek mythology) A female follower of Dionysus, associated with intense reveling.
    • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 30
      Blanche Stroeve was in the cruel grip of appetite. Perhaps she hated Strickland still, but she hungered for him, and everything that had made up her life till then became of no account. She ceased to be a woman, complex, kind and petulant, considerate and thoughtless; she was a Maenad. She was desire.
  2. An excessively wild or emotional woman.

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