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
It is the story of a stage-struck Irish colleen named Carey, who pines for stardom and is raised to it by a producer who is a theatrical genius.
From Time Magazine Archive
But, colleen, keep an eye to that back door.
From Reels and Spindles A Story of Mill Life by Frank T. (Frank Thayer) Merrill
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
Watch an unhinged new thriller: Verity, starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett, brings Colleen Hoover’s most bonkers book to the big screen.
From Slate ● Oct. 5, 2026
The Colleen Hoover adaptation scored $32.6 million in ticket sales in North America.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
Colleen Babcock, Rightmove's head of partner marketing, says London faces additional challenges because its market is heavily weighted towards flats, and "affordability more broadly remains a key challenge".
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
Colleen is young, maybe in her thirties, and really nice.
From "P.S. I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy
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.
