亚洲网紅露点

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old maid

noun

  1. Disparaging and Offensive. an elderly or confirmed spinster.
  2. a fussy, timid, prudish person.
  3. Cards.
    1. a simple game, played with a deck having one card removed, in which the players draw from one another to match pairs and the one holding an odd queen at the end loses.
    2. the loser of such a game.


old maid

noun

  1. a woman regarded as unlikely ever to marry; spinster
  2. informal.
    a prim, fastidious, or excessively cautious person
  3. a card game using a pack from which one card has been removed, in which players try to avoid holding the unpaired card at the end of the game
鈥淐ollins English Dictionary 鈥 Complete & Unabridged鈥 2012 Digital Edition 漏 William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 漏 HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Sensitive Note

The meaning 鈥渁 spinster鈥 is used with disparaging intent and perceived as insulting. It puts emphasis on the woman鈥檚 advanced age and assumed inability to ever attract a husband. spinster.
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Derived Forms

  • 藢辞濒诲-藞尘补颈诲颈蝉丑, adjective
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亚洲网紅露点 History and Origins

Origin of old maid1

First recorded in 1520鈥30
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

If they chance upon the foul water, they are set to marry a widow or widower and if they choose the empty dish "the person is destined to be a bachelor or an old maid".

From

I thought about the days when Great-great-aunt Florentine played old maid with me and Tidings.

From

鈥淏ut then, to be an old maid at last, like Miss Bates!鈥

From

鈥淒on鈥檛 be alarmed. I鈥檓 not one of the agreeable sort. Nobody will want me, and it鈥檚 a mercy, for there should always be one old maid in a family.鈥

From

The younger girls formed hopes of coming out a year or two sooner than they might otherwise have done; and the boys were relieved from their apprehension of Charlotte鈥檚 dying an old maid.

From

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Old Low Germanold-maidish