SPINSTER • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Spinster

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/spˈɪnstər/ Listen

noun

Spinster n.

A woman who spins, or whose occupation is to spin. "She spake to spinster to spin it out." "The spinsters and the knitters in the sun."

A man who spins. (Obs.)

(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."

A woman of evil life and character; so called from being forced to spin in a house of correction. (Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Spinster'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Spinster" Quotes from Famous Books

... breast With verse, let him, fit votarist, implore Their inspiration. He perchance the gifts Of young Lyaeus, and the dread exploits, May sing in aptest numbers; he the fate 310 Of sober Pentheus, [FF] he the Paphian rites, And naked Mars with Cytherea chain'd, And strong Alcides in the spinster's robes, May celebrate, applauded. But with you, O Naiads, far from that unhallow'd rout, Must dwell the man whoe'er to praised themes Invokes the immortal Muse. The immortal Muse To your calm habitations, to the cave Corycian[GG] or the Delphic mount, [HH] will ...

— Poetical Works of Akenside - [Edited by George Gilfillan] • Mark Akenside

... "Clever Betsy" was a boat—named for the unyielding spinster whom the captain hoped to marry. Through the two Betsys a clever group of people are ...

— The Blue Wall - A Story of Strangeness and Struggle • Richard Washburn Child

... an old man named Poiret and a man of forty or thereabouts, the wearer of a black wig and dyed whiskers, who gave out that he was a retired merchant, and was addressed as M. Vautrin. Two of the four rooms on the third floor were also let—one to an elderly spinster, a Mlle. Michonneau, and the other to a retired manufacturer of vermicelli, Italian paste and starch, who allowed the others to address him as "Father Goriot." The remaining rooms were allotted to various birds of passage, to impecunious ...

— Father Goriot • Honore de Balzac

... audible gasp of shock from a spinster-appearing female sunning herself hard by and angularly in the sand in a swimming suit monstrously unbeautiful, Lee Barton was aware of an involuntary and almost perceptible stiffening on the part ...

— On the Makaloa Mat/Island Tales • Jack London

... elements of the population were not neglected. For the older married man, there was a blow directly between the eyes: "Do You Want Your Widow to Be Half-Safe?" And, for the spinster without immediate hopes, "I Dreamt I Was Caught Dead Without ...

— And All the Earth a Grave • Carroll M. Capps (AKA C.C. MacApp)

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