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spinster - 4 dictionary results
spin⋅ster
[spin-ster] 
stər
–noun
| 1. | a woman still unmarried beyond the usual age of marrying. |
| 2. | Chiefly Law. a woman who has never married. |
| 3. | a woman whose occupation is spinning. |
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To spinster
| spin·ster (spĭn'stər) n.
[Middle English spinnestere, female spinner of thread : spinnen, to spin; see spin + -estere, -ster, -ster.] spin'ster·hood' n., spin'ster·ish, spin'ster·ly adj. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Spinster
Spin"ster\, n. [Spin + -ster.]1. A woman who spins, or whose occupation is to spin. She spake to spinster to spin it out. --Piers Plowman. The spinsters and the knitters in the sun. --Shak. 2. A man who spins. [Obs.] --Shak. 3. (Law) An unmarried or single woman; -- used in legal proceedings as a title, or addition to the surname. If a gentlewoman be termed a spinster, she may abate the writ. --Coke. 4. A woman of evil life and character; -- so called from being forced to spin in a house of correction. [Obs.]
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : spinster
Spanish:
soltera,
German:
alte Jungfer,
Japanese:
独身女性
spinster
1362, "female spinner of thread," from M.E. 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]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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