spindle side

American  

noun

1. the female side or line of descent of a family; distaff side (spear side ).

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Etymology

Origin of spindle side

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

As there was, according to the immortal Cyrus Bantam, M.C., when he was giving his information to Mr. Pickwick, "nobody old or ugly in Ba-ath," so there is on "the spindle side" no one old or ugly on the stage of the Savoy Theatre.

From Project Gutenberg

Naught of gentle blood have I either on the spear side or the spindle side.

From Project Gutenberg

Women among totemistic and exogamous savages are in a degraded position, nor does the deriving and inheriting of the kinship name, or anything else, on the spindle side, imply any ignorance of paternal relations; even where, as among Central Australian tribes, the facts of reproduction are said to be unknown.

From Project Gutenberg

The walls were panelled with dark oak up to the gallery that ran round three sides of it, the balusters of the wide staircase were heavily carved, and blackened portraits of Flurry’s ancestors on the spindle side, stared sourly down on their descendant as he tramped upstairs with the bog mould on his hobnailed boots.

From Project Gutenberg

The walls were panelled with dark oak up to the gallery that ran round three sides of it, the balusters of the wide staircase were heavily carved, and blackened portraits of Flurry's ancestors on the spindle side stared sourly down on their descendant as he tramped upstairs with the bog mould on his hobnailed boots.

From Project Gutenberg