Search Result for "spinster": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (2)

1. an elderly unmarried woman;
[syn: spinster, old maid]

2. someone who spins (who twists fibers into threads);
[syn: spinner, spinster, thread maker]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

spinster n 1: an elderly unmarried woman [syn: spinster, old maid] 2: someone who spins (who twists fibers into threads) [syn: spinner, spinster, thread maker]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

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, ,
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

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