Spinster

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Spinster \Spin"ster\, n. [Spin + -ster.]
     1. A woman who spins, or whose occupation is to spin.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              She spake to spinster to spin it out. --Piers
                                                    Plowman.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              The spinsters and the knitters in the sun. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A man who spins. [Obs.] --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Law) An unmarried or single woman; -- used in legal
        proceedings as a title, or addition to the surname.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              If a gentlewoman be termed a spinster, she may abate
              the writ.                             --Coke.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. A woman of evil life and character; -- so called from
        being forced to spin in a house of correction. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  spinster
       n 1: an elderly unmarried woman [syn: {old maid}]
       2: someone who spins (who twists fibers into threads) [syn: {spinner},
           {thread maker}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  23 Moby Thesaurus words for "spinster":
     bachelor girl, feme sole, jenny, lone woman, maid, maiden,
     maiden lady, mule, old maid, silkworm, single girl, spider,
     spinner, spinning frame, spinning jenny, spinstress, tabby,
     throstle, vestal, vestal virgin, virgin, , 
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  SPINSTER. An addition given, in legal writings, to a woman who never was 
  married. Lovel. on Wills, 269.