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View synonyms for
spinster
[ spin-ster ]
noun
- Disparaging and Offensive. a woman still unmarried beyond the usual age of marrying.
- Chiefly Law. a woman who has never married.
- a woman whose occupation is spinning.
spinster
/ ˈɪԲə /
noun
- an unmarried woman regarded as being beyond the age of marriage
- law (in legal documents) a woman who has never married Compare feme sole
- (formerly) a woman who spins thread for her living
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Sensitive Note
The meaning “a woman beyond the usual marriageable age” is used with disparaging intent and perceived as insulting. It implies negative qualities such as being fussy or undesirable. old maid.
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Derived Forms
- ˈ辱Բٱ, adjective
- ˈ辱ԲٱˌǴǻ, noun
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Other 51Թ Forms
- 辱sٱ·Ǵǻ noun
- 辱sٱ· adjective
- 辱sٱ··ly adverb
- 辱sٱ· adjective
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51Թ History and Origins
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51Թ History and Origins
Origin of spinster1
C14 (in the sense: a person, esp a woman, whose occupation is spinning; C17: a woman still unmarried): from spin + -ster
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Example Sentences
Examples have not been reviewed.
"She's described in the record as a spinster," said Prof English.
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The author is looking for a job and taking allergy shots so that she can one day become a spinster with two cats.
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“What I saw with the first show was that the people that came did not fit the model of the hoarder, spinster, crazy cat lady,” she said.
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“The secretary of agriculture responded to ‘Silent Spring’ by asking ‘why a spinster with no children was so concerned about genetics,’” Shapland writes.
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"Look at me," she declares to her spinster daughters in one scene.
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