old-maidish
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of old-maidish
First recorded in 1750–60
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.
In 1925, after his name had been most prominently mentioned, the Swedish Academy, with the old-maidish perversity for which it is famed, withheld the prize for a year, finally awarded it to George Bernard Shaw.
From Time Magazine Archive
Both sides made hesitant, amateurish use of TV, handicapped by their own fears of it, and by the old-maidish restrictions of the government-owned BBC.
From Time Magazine Archive
He is indeed a Bostonian, with a Harvard accent, a vaguely old-maidish face and a wardrobe of sedate grey suits.
From Time Magazine Archive
And, lowering her voice, she turned her dull grey eyes, swimming with motherly tears, towards the corner sofa where the pale, fretful, old-maidish Jane lay sleeping.
From Agatha's Husband A Novel by Walter Crane
The chivalrous something in Anthony welled up more strongly than ever; the precise, rather old-maidish quality of his expression vanished altogether—and for the very first time Mary almost liked him.
From In And Out by Edgar Franklin
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.
