colleen
noun
an Irish girl.
colleen
1 American
[kol-een, ko-leen]
/ ˈkɒl in, kɒˈlin /
noun
Colleen
2
American
[kol-een, ko-leen]
/ ˈkɒl in, kɒˈlin /
noun
colleen
British
/ kɒˈliːn, ˈkɒliːn /
noun
-
an Irish word for girl
-
an Irish girl
Etymology
Origin of colleen
1820–30; < Irish cailín, equivalent to caile girl, wench + -ín diminutive suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Wilmington described O’Hara as “Hollywood’s ultimate fiery colleen, she has a classic chiseled Irish beauty and a thinly strapped temper that erupted smashingly into scathing tantrums or round-house rights.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2015
And the neighbours all pity the colleen so pretty,
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2015
The Hitch The inhabitants of a neighboring barren, windswept Irish island want parts in it, including the play’s misshapen title character and a sociopathic colleen named Slippy Helen.
From New York Times ● Oct. 18, 2014
Last week there was a coy smile on the face of New York's Tammany tiger for on its back sat a fair colleen named Winifred C. O'Leary.
From Time Magazine Archive
"She's that girl of the Cantys', ma'am, and as likely a colleen as ever ye met, though I say it as shouldn't, she being kin-like," says Mrs. Reilly, boldly, seeing her time is come.
From Rossmoyne by Unknown
"Verity," Amazon MGM's psychological thriller based on a novel by Colleen Hoover, dropped from first to second place at $11.5 million, according to Exhibitor Relations.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
Of all the tawdry delights in “Verity” — Michael Showalter’s adaptation of bestselling author Colleen Hoover’s massively popular psychological thriller — the best and most unexpected is how well the film hides its secrets.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026
For all of Colleen Hoover’s success on the page, adapting her books to the screen has been tricky.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
The Colleen Hoover adaptation scored $32.6 million in ticket sales in North America.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
But Colleen, his friend’s mother, used to say: Life is not fair.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
