spinster
Americannoun
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Disparaging and Offensive. a woman still unmarried beyond the usual age of marrying.
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Chiefly Law. a woman who has never married.
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a woman whose occupation is spinning.
noun
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an unmarried woman regarded as being beyond the age of marriage
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law (in legal documents) a woman who has never married Compare feme sole
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(formerly) a woman who spins thread for her living
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. See also old maid.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of spinster
1325–75; Middle English spinnestere a woman who spins. See spin, -ster
Explanation
A spinster is an older, unmarried woman. Even if you're in awe of your Aunt Sally's glamorous, single life, your grandmother might dismiss her as a spinster. Spinster originally meant "a spinner of thread," and as that was a job typically done by unmarried women, it came to have the meaning — even in legal documents — of "single woman." Another term for spinster is the equally old-fashioned sounding old maid. Either way, it means a woman who never got married. Spinster is not a word you should call anyone: it reduces single women to one detail about their lives.
Vocabulary lists containing spinster
The Help
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The Distance Between Us
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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.
She’s trained by Cox, who gave her an extended break after a third-place finish in the Spinster Stakes last October.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 5, 2021
“After the Storm” is the final track on her new album, “Urban Driftwood,” which will be released Jan. 29 on the intersectional feminist label Spinster.
From Washington Post • Jan. 21, 2021
Even though she finished second in the Spinster Stakes on Sunday at Keeneland.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 10, 2019
Kate Bolick, author of Spinster, cautions that we are in transition.
From The Guardian • Mar. 5, 2016
Spinning is associated with Spinster, but recent events at Cambridge make the use of the word somewhat objectionable.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 101, December 26, 1891 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
