spindle side
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of spindle side
First recorded in 1850–55
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.
He adds, "My grandfather bequeathed his land on the spear side, not on the spindle side; therefore if I have given what he acquired to any on the female side, let my kinsman make compensation."
From Landholding in England by Joseph Fisher
My mother's clan--and it is from the spindle side that a man gets his traits--are all come-outers as far back as I know anything about them.
From The Power and the Glory by Arthur Ignatius Keller
It is a piteous thing when our little imperial fiefs go to the spindle side!’
From The Caged Lion by Charlotte Mary Yonge
The mother has no authority in such matters nor indeed has anyone on the "spindle" side.
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 16 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
His father was Scotch, and his mother—Spanish on the spindle side and Irish by way of a most mercurial father—remained an unsolved problem all her days, even to her husband.
From The Tyranny of the Dark by Hamlin Garland
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.
