Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A woman who spins, or whose occupation is spinning; a spinster.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A woman who spins.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A woman who spins.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

spinster +‎ -ess

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Examples

  • The story has RIAA spinstress Cara Duckworth (right) saying in a mealy mouthed statement:

    Patti Santangelo and RIAA extortion 2009

  • He married a gaunt tubercular spinstress, 10 years his elder, but with a nest egg and an unshakable will to matrimony.

    Thomas Wolfe’s ‘Angel’ of Death - Paper Cuts Blog - NYTimes.com 2009

  • He married a gaunt tubercular spinstress, 10 years his elder, but with a nest egg and an unshakable will to matrimony.

    Thomas Wolfe’s ‘Angel’ of Death - Paper Cuts Blog - NYTimes.com 2009

  • And indeed, the deeds of this administration tell the world far more about the current US administration than whatever public-diplomacy programs spinstress Karen claims credit for.

    John Brown: The Second Coming of Karen Hughes 2008

  • The sound pursued Hugh Beringar back to the apartment in the guest-hall, where his wife and Emma Vernold were very pleasurably comparing the virtues of various wools, and the maid Constance, who was an expert spinstress, was fingering the samples critically and giving her advice.

    St. Peter's Fair Peters, Ellis, 1913- 1981

  • The sound pursued Hugh Beringar back to the apartment in the guest-hall, where his wife and Emma Vernold were very pleasurably comparing the virtues of various wools, and the maid Constance, who was an expert spinstress, was fingering the samples critically and giving her advice.

    St. Peter's Fair Peters, Ellis, 1913- 1981

  • At fifteen years of age, beautiful as the day, this royal child was to die of a fatal wound, caused by a spindle, an innocent weapon in the hands of mortal women, but a terrible one when the three spinstress Sisters twist and coil thereon the thread of our destinies and the strings of our hearts.

    The Story Of The Duchess Of Cicogne And Of Monsieur De Boulingrin 1920 Anatole France 1884

  • It is a case of the resistance of Gordian knots, which not even the very spinstress who fastened them is capable of untying.

    The Life of the Spider Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

  • Prettily shaped and clad, as far as a Spider can be, the Clotho of the naturalists is, above all, a highly talented spinstress; and this is the reason why she is called after the distaff-bearing deity of the infernal regions.

    The Life of the Spider Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

  • A mythological name came to his mind, one which sounded well and which, moreover, was not out of place in designating a spinstress.

    The Life of the Spider Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

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