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''spinster'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260920211627-00-⌔

spinster - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

spinster (plural spinsters)

  • (sometimes derogatory) A woman who has never been married, especially one past the typical marrying age according to social traditions.
    • ✤ Synonym: old maid
    • ✤ If […] a woman be named spinster, she may abate […] the same[writ].1
    • ✤ Iola Boylen is Mama’s longtime friend and neighbor, a spinster who lives with her never-seen domineering mother.2
    • ✤ […] as a young woman she created a scandal by pursuing a passionate affair with a married opera singer, and she has spent the rest of her life as a spinster daydreaming of her long-lost love.3
  • 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.
  • (obsolete) Someone whose occupation was spinning thread.
    • ✤ The spinsters and the knitters in the sun.4
  • (obsolete) A woman of evil life and character; so called from being forced to spin in a house of correction.
  • (rare, dialectal) A spider; an insect (such as a silkworm) which spins thread.

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.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈspɪnstə/
    • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈspɪnstɚ/
  • Rhymes: -ɪnstə(ɹ)

Printed 2026-09-20.

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Footnotes

  1. 1628–1644, Edw[ard] Coke, **, London: ↩

  2. 1993, Vincent Terrace, Television Character and Story Facts, Over 110,000 Details from 1,008 Shows, 1945-1992, page 282: ↩

  3. 1999 November 2, Michiko Kakutani, “Books of The Times: A Single Girl Takes On the California Frontier”, in The New York Times (E section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 7: ↩

  4. c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]: ↩