Meaning & use

damsel

noun·Advanced

An old-fashioned or literary word for a young, unmarried woman.

See it in a sentence

In the fairy tale, a brave knight rescues the damsel from the tower.

The old ballad tells of a damsel waiting faithfully for her lover's return.

A note on using this word

Damsel survives mainly in the phrase damsel in distress and in fairy tales; it sounds archaic in everyday modern speech.

Words with a similar meaning

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