spinster (spinster)

[ My wif was a web be and wollen cloth made. Hu spak to the spynnesters to spynnen hit oute. Piers Plowman (C), vii. 222. The silkworm is Only man's spinster. Randolph , Muses' Looking-Gla , iv. 1. Let the three housewifely spinsters of destiny rather curtail the thread of thy life. Dekker, Gull's Hornbook, p. 83. 2. An unmarried woman (so called because she was supposed to occupy herself with spinning): the legal designation in England of all unmarried women from a viscount's daughter downward; popularly, an elderly unmarried woman; an "old maid”: sometimes used adjectively. I, Anthony Lumpkin, Esquire, of Blank place, refuse you, Constant i a Neville, spinster , of no place at all. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, v. 1. IMG:content-1760.png:[graphic] IMG:content-1761.png:[graphic] spinster O, that I should live to hear myself called Spinster ! Sheridan , The Rivals, v. 1. Here the spinster aunt uttered a loud shriek, and became sensele . Dickens , Pickwick, x. 31. A woman of an evil life or character: so called from being forced to spin in the house of correction. See spin - house. We are no spinsters ; nor, if you look upon us, So wretched as you take us. Fletcher ( and another ?), Prophete , iii. 1.