[f. SPINSTER 2 b.]
1. The condition of being an unmarried woman or old maid.
1823. Lockhart, Reg. Dalton, I. vi. It must have required the fact of a very Beau Nash to detect in her appearance the very smallest symptom of spinsterhood.
1863. B. Taylor, H. Thurston, ii. 28. He married … a tall, staid, self-reliant creature, verging on spinsterhood.
1879. H. Phillips, Notes Coins, 6. In antiquity these coins were known as maidens, referring to the spinsterhood of the goddess represented upon them.
2. The collective body of unmarried women.
1844. Blackw. Mag., LV. 201. Is this a reason … for leaving, like an uncultivated waste,… the spinsterhood of Great Britain?
