Definition of "maiden"

As for that ſaid ſire Bors I wille be ſhryuen with a good wylle / Soo ſyr Bors was confeſſyd / and for al wymmen ſir Bors was a vyrgyne / ſauf for one / that was the doughter of kynge Brangorys / and on her he gat a child that hyghte Elayne / and ſauf for her ſyre Bors was a clene mayden […]As for that, said Sir Bors, I will be shriven with a good will. So Sir Bors was confessed, and for all women Sir Bors was a virgin, save for one, that was the daughter of King Brangoris, and with her he begat a child that hight Elaine, and save for her Sir Bors was a clean maiden.

1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum Quartum”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XI (in Middle English), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, leaf 289, recto; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, page 577

It had been customary during the whole civil war, to decapitate state criminals by the instrument called the maiden; but Montrose was condemned to a more ignominious death , by a gibbet thirty feet high

1832, Robert Chambers, The History of Scotland

a surprising old maiden lady

1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859

It was just the middle of October when I moved in with my maiden sister […]

1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House

Haue you no modeſty, no maiden ſhame, / No touch of baſhfulneſſe?

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii], page 155, column 2

Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado took his maiden victory and Williams's first since 2004 in a strategic battle with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

2012 May 13, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport‎

Come Brother Iohn, full brauely haſt thou fleſht thy Maiden ſword.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iv], page 72, column 2

When I am dead, good Wench, / Let me be vs’d with Honor; ſtrew me ouer / With Maiden Flowers, that all the world may know / I was a chaſte Wife, to my Graue: Embalme me, / Then lay me forth (although vnqueen’d) yet like / A Queene, and Daughter to a King enterre me.

1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene ii], page 226, column 2

Victorie forsook him for ever since he ransacked the maiden town of Magdenburg

1631, J. Taylor, (Please provide the book title or journal name)

But every citizen considered his own honor as bound up with the honor of the maiden fortress.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans