blue-stocking

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“
He knew, of course, that the modern woman had sloughed off helplessness and docile dependence on man, but like an ostrich with its head in the sand he had chosen to form a mental conception of what she was like, and he had pictured her either as a hoyden or an unsympathetic blue-stocking.

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Definitions (4)

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  1. Wearing blue stockings; specifically, wearing blue or gray worsted stockings, as opposed to those of black silk worn in court or ceremonial dress; hence, not in full dress; in plain dress. Applied to the Little Parliament of 1653. That Blew-stocking Parliament, Barebone Parliament, a companie of fellowes called togeather by Cromwell. Sir J. Bramston, Autobiog. (ed. 1845), p. 89. (N. E. D.)
  2. Applied to assemblies held in London about 1750 at the houses of Mrs. Montague and other ladies, in which literary conversation and other intellectual enjoyments were substituted for cards and gossip, and which were characterized by a studied plainness of dress on the part of some of the guests. Among these was Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, who always wore blue stockings, and in reference to whom, especially, the coterie was called in derision the “Blue-stocking Society” or the “Blue-stocking Club,” and the members, especially the ladies, “blue-stockingers,” “blue-stocking ladies,” and later simply “blue-stockings” or “blues.”
  3. A member of the “Blue-stocking Club,” especially a woman (see above); by extension, any woman with a taste for learning or literature; a literary woman: originally used in derision or contempt, and implying a neglect on the part of such women of their domestic duties or a departure from their “proper sphere”; now hardly used except historically or humorously.
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Examples (50)

  • "Quite a blue-stocking," suggested Robert. —  Salthaven
  • "There's nothing of the blue-stocking about her," said the captain, warmly. —  Salthaven
  • Sappho the sage blue-stocking, in whose grave —  Don Juan
  • "You don't want to turn yourself into a blue-stocking, do you? —  The Making of a Soul
  • "Ellen, did you ever see a genuine blue-stocking?" —  St. Elmo
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