A handmaiden (or handmaid)'s a female attendant, assistant, servant, or slave. Domestic work Typically, royalty and nobility would've handmaidens. Aid for domestic laundry A handmaiden was the common term in Victorian times for a wooden, hinged clothes airer having two rectangular frames hinged vertically and with three horizontal rails on each frame for drying and airing clothes, often in front of a kitchen fireplace. Religion Norse goddesses (such as Frigga) had handmaidens, as did Biblical ch… (More on Handmaiden)