spinster

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.

In the 1500s some towns, such as Chester, England, actually made it illegal for most women to sell beer, worried that young alewives would grow up into old spinsters.

From Salon

At 25 — a hopeless spinster! — she’s constantly reminded that “no man of note wants an unattractive wife.”

From Washington Post

For centuries, Shakespeare’s male biographers twisted these meager facts into a misogynistic scenario: An aging spinster entraps a callow youth and a loveless, mostly long-distance, marriage ensues.

From New York Times

Bored and careless of other people’s feelings, she makes a cutting remark that is meant to be witty but ends up humiliating its target, the kindly, twittery, tedious professional spinster Miss Bates.

From New York Times

When it suits her, she can be charming, but, to the poor spinster, Miss Bates, she is coldly polite at best, and, at worst, openly derisive.

From New York Times