A maid is someone whose job is to clean and take care of a house or hotel. In a large hotel, maids clean the guest rooms, change the sheets, vacuum the carpets, and restock the towels. In someone's home, a maid might dust furniture, mop floors, do laundry, and keep things tidy.

In historical fiction or period dramas, you'll often see wealthy families employing maids who lived in their homes and worked long hours for low pay.

Today, people who do this work are often called housekeepers or cleaning professionals instead, terms that better reflect the skill and dignity of the work. A good housekeeper needs to be organized, thorough, and efficient, knowing which products clean different surfaces and how to work systematically through a space.

You might also hear maid in the phrase maid of honor, which means the bride's chief attendant at a wedding. This uses an older meaning of maid as a young woman, not specifically someone who cleans houses.