old-maidish

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He is indeed a Bostonian, with a Harvard accent, a vaguely old-maidish face and a wardrobe of sedate grey suits.

From Time Magazine Archive

Both sides made hesitant, amateurish use of TV, handicapped by their own fears of it, and by the old-maidish restrictions of the government-owned BBC.

From Time Magazine Archive

In 1925, after his name had been most prominently mentioned, the Swedish Academy, with the old-maidish perversity for which it is famed, withheld the prize for a year, finally awarded it to George Bernard Shaw.

From Time Magazine Archive

“Now, then,” said Nares, who had watched the breaking out of his signal with the old-maidish particularity of an American sailor, “out with those handspikes, and let’s see what water there is in the lagoon.”

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25) by Stevenson, Robert Louis

From his grave-side she had been taken by an old-maidish aunt to her institution, where for three years she had gazed with yearning through a barred window on the forbidden street.

From The Undying Past by Sudermann, Hermann