old-maidish

[ohld-mey-dish]

adjective

1. characteristic of or resembling an old maid.

Word History and Origins

Origin of old-maidish¹

First recorded in 1750–60

Example Sentences

They were the rampart, behind which the half-dozen querulous, rather old-maidish specialists measured skulls, gathered fragments of pottery, took rubbings of inscriptions, and collected folk-lore.

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Indeed, she was as prim and “old-maidish” as any spinster lady possibly could be.

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The Pavilion of George the Fourth was the last word in gorgeousness of his time, but it wears an old-maidish appearance of dowdiness in midst of the Brighton of the twentieth century.

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In his small personal affairs he shows a certain old-maidish tidiness and the prudence of an experienced old bachelor, who manages his little pleasures without scandal.

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I want them to know her, and yet I feel how difficult it is to describe her—or rather him, though I shall continue to say her—without writing in a goody-goody or old-maidish style.

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Related Words

• careful 
• fastidious 
• finical 
• finicking www.thesaurus.com
• finicky 
• fussbudgety www.thesaurus.com
• fussy 
• particular 
• precious 
• precise 
• prim