Spinster

A spinster is an older word for an unmarried woman. A word used more often today is "single woman" or bachelorette.

Other meanings

A spinster is also someone who spins yarn from wool using a spinning wheel. Spinsters use the yarn to make clothes like a tailor, seamster, seamstress. One famous spinster is the girl in the story of Rumpelstiltskin.

Spinster Media

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  A poem entitled "It won't be my fault if I die an Old Maid", containing the lines "Remember no thought to a girl is so dread / As the terrible one—She may die an Old Maid."

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  The Spinner by William-Adolphe Bouguereau shows a woman hand-spinning using a drop spindle. Fibers to be spun are bound to a distaff held in her left hand.

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  Monument to Peg Woffington (1720–1760) in St Mary's church, Teddington which describes her marital status.

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  In 1936, Lambert Pharmacal Co., St. Louis, Mo. advertising Listerine mouthwash blamed halitosis for Edna approaching her 30th birthday, and still being "Often a bridesmaid but never a bride".