Abigail,

Abigail, wife of Nabal, a wealthy chief at Carmel, who refused common hospitality to David when an outlaw from the court of Saul. David was on his way to punish Nabal for his churlishness, when Abigail hastened to meet him with a present, and so charmed him, that, on the death of her husband soon after, he at once took her to wife (see 1 Sam. xxv.).—The name Abigail has passed into a general name for a waiting-maid or lady's-maid, from the title of 'handmaid' applied to herself by Abigail in her address to David.