How to Use spinster in a Sentence

spinster

noun
  • An old spinster, and worse, a scandalous one.
    — Grace Aldridge august 8, Literary Hub, 8 Aug. 2025
  • In the house lives a spinster who was known in girlhood for her beauty.
    — cleveland, 29 Oct. 2022
  • Half of the awful old spinsters who taught at our school, for instance.
    — Tessa Hadley, The New Yorker, 23 June 2024
  • The forty-year-old spinster aunt could only find a 70-year-old to be with her.
    — Sheena Scott, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2021
  • The play focuses on a ranch-owning spinster and a pair of suitors.
    — Luann Gibbs, The Enquirer, 9 Mar. 2022
  • Anyhow, please don’t dismiss her as a spinster in a backwater.
    — Ted Scheinman, The Atlantic, 22 July 2017
  • Martin had considered her priggish, a bit of a spinster.
    — Literary Hub, 13 Mar. 2026
  • Maisie lives with her spinster daughter Betty but Maisie's eyes are just for her son, Hughie.
    — Jessi Virtusio, Daily Southtown, 29 Mar. 2018
  • The spinster was replaced by the cocktail/wine-swigging singleton.
    — Vicky Spratt, refinery29.com, 1 May 2020
  • Olivia Williams shows up as Lavinia Bidlow, a wealthy spinster with unclear motives.
    — Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 9 Apr. 2021
  • The costume is wrong and the image creates a myth Austen was a demure spinster and not a deep-thinking author.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, PEOPLE.com, 18 July 2017
  • And the title, the idea of a merry spinster — the idea of jolly, self-sufficient female solitude — that’s very dear to me.
    — Heather Havrilesky, The Cut, 13 Mar. 2018
  • Charles’ new wife, a veritable spinster at the ripe old age of 11, was young but at least age-appropriate.
    — Anne Thériault, Longreads, 21 June 2022
  • In such cards, suffragettes were usually depicted as ugly spinsters or abusive, lazy wives.
    — Melissa Chan, Fortune, 14 Feb. 2026
  • Be a malevolent spinster tornado instead, one that’s spilling over with rage and frustration.
    — The Cut, 13 Dec. 2017
  • Queens, friends and spinsters Elsewhere in Mayfair, the wheels are turning on the subplots of the season.
    — Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 29 Jan. 2026
  • Left to the company of her thoughts and feelings, Pym’s spinster becomes observant.
    — Literary Hub, 17 Nov. 2025
  • In the early modern period, the word spinster didn’t mean unmarried woman.
    — Vicky Spratt, refinery29.com, 21 Mar. 2022
  • But LeGris wanted to play Masha, the movie star in the show, not Sonia, the gloomy, depressed spinster.
    — Don Maines, Houston Chronicle, 25 Mar. 2018
  • One-eyed Marshal Cogburn helps a Bible-toting spinster find the men who killed her preacher father.
    — Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2019
  • Huppert’s turn as the singing, dancing spinster aunt Augustine — a rare comedic performance — was a scene-stealer.
    — Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Feb. 2022
  • The latter have moved away from the village and do not appear, while the former stay and assist their mother, the eldest being a literal spinster.
    — Ryan Swen, Variety, 18 Jan. 2025
  • But Anthony can’t seem to stop thinking about Edwina’s spinster sister Kate.
    — Kari Sonde, TIME, 1 Aug. 2024
  • This means that whereas there are more single women than men in big cities like Tokyo, bachelors outnumber spinsters in rural areas.
    — The Economist, 3 Oct. 2019
  • For four seasons, Bridgerton has portrayed Eloise as a spinster who, unlike her siblings, may never marry or find the love of her life.
    — Jason Pham, StyleCaster, 29 Jan. 2026
  • There would be some updates—instead of a spinster, my protagonist, Clemence Lathbury, is a divorcee.
    — Literary Hub, 16 Mar. 2026
  • Vanya is a closeted gay man who shuns intimacy and Sonia is a neurotic spinster who feels unnoticed and unloved.
    — Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Oct. 2025
  • Wentworth, now a wealthy captain, returns to find Anne unmarried—practically a spinster at 27 years old.
    — Chelsey Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 15 June 2022
  • Badham, who played only a few other movie and TV roles, seemed almost as much an enigma as Lee, a spinster who died last year at age 89.
    — Harold Jackson, Philly.com, 18 Oct. 2017
  • Apparently the only thing worse than being a Vegetable King in Mayfair is being a spinster.
    — Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 16 May 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'spinster.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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