English Explanatory Dictionary

spinster

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A woman who has never been married, especially one past the typical marrying age according to social traditions.
  2. One who spins (puts a spin on) a political media story so as to give something a favorable or advantageous appearance; a spin doctor, spin merchant or spinmeister.
  3. Someone whose occupation was spinning thread.
  4. A woman of evil life and character; so called from being forced to spin in a house of correction.
  5. A spider; an insect (such as a silkworm) which spins thread.

Pronunciation

/ˈspɪnstə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spinster.wav /ˈspɪnstɚ/

Word forms

spinster spinsters

Etymology

From Middle English spynnestere (“woman who spins fibre”), from c. 1350; equivalent to spin + -ster. The semantic development is from a historical notion of unmarried women spinning thread for a living.

Synonyms

old maid

Related words

bachelor bachelorette divorcee thornback widow

Derived words

inspin spinsterdom spinsterhood spinsterish spinsterism spinsterlike spinsterly spinstership spinstress

Translations

Afrikaans: oujongnooi Arabic: عَانِس Armenian: տանը մնացած Armenian: պառաված օրիորդ Azerbaijani: qoca qız Azerbaijani: qarımış qız Bashkir: ҡарт ҡыҙ Basque: neskazahar Belarusian: стара́я дзе́ва Bulgarian: ста́ра мо́ма Burmese: အပျိုကြီး Catalan: conca Chechen: ойна Chinese Mandarin: 老處女 /老处女 Chinese Mandarin: 剩女 Czech: stará panna Danish: pebermø Dutch: oude vrijster Dutch: ongehuwde vrouw Estonian: vanatüdruk Finnish: vanhapiika French: vieille fille Galician: poula Galician: solteirona Georgian: შინაბერა German: alte Jungfer German: Junggesellin German: unverheiratete Frau German: älteres Fräulein Greek: γεροντοκόρη Hebrew: רַוָּקָה זְקֵנָה Hebrew: בְּתוּלָה זְקֵנָה Hindi: बूढ़ी कुँवारी Hungarian: vénkisasszony Hungarian: aggszűz Hungarian: vénlány Icelandic: piparmey Ido: damzelo Indonesian: perawan tua Ingrian: vanhatyttö Irish: bean shingil Irish: puisbhean Italian: zitella Japanese: オールドミス Japanese: 売れ残り Japanese: ハイミス Kazakh: кәрі қыз Khmer: ព្រៅ Khmer: សាវកែ Khmer: ក្រមុំចាស់ Khmer: ស្ត្រីព្រៅ Korean: 올드 미스 Korean: 노처녀 Korean: 로처녀 Kyrgyz: кары кыз Lao: ນາງສາວແກ່ Latvian: vecmeita Lithuanian: senmergė Lü: ᦉᦱᧁᦏᧁᧉ
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