[syn: spinner, spinster, thread maker]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Spinster \Spin"ster\, n. [Spin + -ster.]
1. A woman who spins, or whose occupation is to spin.
[1913 Webster]
She spake to spinster to spin it out. --Piers
Plowman.
[1913 Webster]
The spinsters and the knitters in the sun. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. A man who spins. [Obs.] --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Law) An unmarried or single woman; -- used in legal
proceedings as a title, or addition to the surname.
[1913 Webster]
If a gentlewoman be termed a spinster, she may abate
the writ. --Coke.
[1913 Webster]
4. A woman of evil life and character; -- so called from
being forced to spin in a house of correction. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
spinster
n 1: an elderly unmarried woman [syn: spinster, old maid]
2: someone who spins (who twists fibers into threads) [syn:
spinner, spinster, thread maker]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
23 Moby Thesaurus words for "spinster":
bachelor girl, feme sole, jenny, lone woman, maid, maiden,
maiden lady, mule, old maid, silkworm, single girl, spider,
spinner, spinning frame, spinning jenny, spinstress, tabby,
throstle, vestal, vestal virgin, virgin, ,
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
SPINSTER. An addition given, in legal writings, to a woman who never was
married. Lovel. on Wills, 269.