spinster

[ spin-ster ]

/ ˈspɪn stər /

noun

Disparaging and Offensive. a woman still unmarried beyond the usual age of marrying.

Chiefly Law. a woman who has never married.

a woman whose occupation is spinning.

Nearby words

Origin of spinster

1325–75; Middle English spinnestere a woman who spins. See spin, -ster

Related formsspin·ster·hood, nounspin·ster·ish, adjectivespin·ster·ish·ly, adverbspin·ster·like, adjective

Usage note

The meaning “a woman beyond the usual marriageable age” is used with disparaging intent and perceived as insulting. It implies negative qualities such as being fussy or undesirable. See also old maid.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for spinsterhood

An elderly female relative, who has been dragging her spinsterhood about these—how many years shall we say?
The Virginians|William Makepeace Thackeray
But the shadow of spinsterhood had hardly yet begun to throw itself across their breezy path.
Abington Abbey|Archibald Marshall
May not our Mrs. Quickly have been celebrated as the hostess of the Boar's Head in her spinsterhood?
The Life Of Sir John Falstaff|Robert B. Brough
Of course, many a spinster has gone to a satisfied grave in complete contentment over a life of spinsterhood.
Stubble|George Looms

She thinks he has forgotten her, and allows herself to externally fade into spinsterhood.
Charles Frohman: Manager and Man|Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman

British Dictionary definitions for spinsterhood

spinster

/ (ˈspɪnstə) /

noun

an unmarried woman regarded as being beyond the age of marriage

law (in legal documents) a woman who has never marriedCompare feme sole

(formerly) a woman who spins thread for her living

Derived Formsspinsterhood, nounspinsterish, adjective

Word Origin for spinster

C14 (in the sense: a person, esp a woman, whose occupation is spinning; C17: a woman still unmarried): from spin + -ster

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for spinsterhood

spinster

mid-14c., "female spinner of thread," from Middle English spinnen (see spin) + -stere, feminine suffix. Spinning commonly done by unmarried women, hence the word came to denote "an unmarried woman" in legal documents from 1600s to early 1900s, and by 1719 was being used generically for "woman still unmarried and beyond the usual age for it."

Spinster, a terme, or an addition in our Common Law, onely added in Obligations, Euidences, and Writings, vnto maids vnmarried. [John Minsheu, "Ductor in Linguas," 1617]