old maid
5
8.9
- noun
- /oʊld meɪd/
- Slur
:
solterona
- "Well, either she has to get married or become an old maid; there is no third option.
- die an old maid
- already an old maid
- become an old maid
And he's going to bring up the character of the old maid, the the woman who is unable to succeed in, we could call it, the marketplace of love and sexuality.
- And he's going to bring up the character of the old maid, the the woman who is unable to succeed in, we could call it, the marketplace of love and sexuality.
Examples
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My Aunt Norma was nice, but by the time she turned 32, the whole family was betting that she would wind up an old maid.
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Well, I don't want you to end up an old maid.
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Would you rather be a poor old maid?
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You gonna end up being an old maid.
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You want to die an old maid?
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When I met her, she was already an old maid.
Academic text (1997) -
I'll probably end up an old maid.
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She'll probably die an old maid.
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You'll end up an old maid, with only your own company as entertainment.
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After years of focusing on her career, she accepted the possibility that she might become an old maid.
Synonyms
9
1.0
A woman who is not married
Surface Forms
Morphology
The core meaning 'an older woman who has never married' is directly compositional from 'old' (older) + 'maid' (unmarried/young woman), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the referent. The negative or old-fashioned connotations are pragmatic/cultural nuances that may require extra exposure, but they do not prevent basic transparent decoding of the expression.
Etymology
Old maid comes from the words old and maid, where 'maid' once meant a young, unmarried woman. When a woman stayed unmarried into later life people called her an old maid, so it came to mean 'an older woman who has never married' and is now often seen as rude or old-fashioned.