Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A woman teacher, especially one who is regarded as strict or old-fashioned.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A bad spelling of
schoolma'am .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun US, slang A woman who is a
teacher , especially a teacher in aschoolhouse ; may carry the connotation she issevere . - noun A person, male or female, who exhibits characteristics attributed to schoolteachers of the old times (as strict adherence to arbitrary rules, is
strict on those who don't comply to those rules, etc.) - noun forestry A tree with two or more trunks; a forked tree.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a woman schoolteacher (especially one regarded as strict)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word schoolmarm.
Examples
-
Are you a woman in her thirties or a schoolmarm from the thirties?
squawk 2008
-
She piles her hair up in a librarian's bun and wears what she calls "schoolmarm" glasses (one blogger compared her to "Tina Fey's sexier sister").
McCain’s Mrs. Right 2008
-
Whiteside was set to wed "schoolmarm" Elaine Fair.
-
"schoolmarm" thing to say but if people cooked more at home they would at least know how particular dishes ought to taste and of what they should be made.
-
What film, even before that killjoy schoolmarm Joseph Breen brought his Squaresville strictness to the Production Code in 1934, has ever presented the potentially salacious scenario of three-way love in such a wistfully complicated way?
Kim Morgan: It Takes Three: Design for Living Kim Morgan 2011
-
You also said I looked like a woman (your mom) and now are calling me a schoolmarm, (another woman).
-
Not only was it the time of Reagan, but it was also when (anecdotally) the majority of teachers shifted from schoolmarm types to Mr. Van Dreesen hippie types.
-
I hope those UK rad-flees get what they deserve and their “victorian schoolmarm” law fail to pass.
Sex Workers: Once again, what’s best for us? « Bound, Not Gagged 2009
-
With the impatient imperiousness of an Oxfordshire schoolmarm, O'Donnell's Democratic opponent, Chris Coons, lectured, "The First Amendment, the First Amendment establishes ... that there is a separation of church and state that our courts and our laws must respect."
Dr. Jonathan David Farley: Witch's Brouhaha: Is Christine O'Donnell Right about the First Amendment, Mice and Men? Dr. Jonathan David Farley 2010
-
We can perhaps see these two, in another life, as the unfailingly organized schoolmarm (Whitman) and the rebel rousing student (Brown).
Jessica Levinson: Brown and Whitman Face-Off: Many Differences, Few Surprises Jessica Levinson 2010
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.