Cinderellan

Adjective

Cinderellian (comparative more Cinderellian, superlative most Cinderellian)

1. Gracefully small.
   • He had heard for some time the sound of packing and preparing a carriage, but the worst did not strike his mind, for throwing open the window in blind haste, he beheld, O Heavens! the lovely Hebe, just in the trying moment when she was placing her cinderellian foot on the steps of the carriage, the...1835 March 21, “The Prince’s Glance”, in D[avid] L[ester] Richardson, editor, The Calcutta Literary Gazette or Journal of Belles Lettres, Science, and the Arts, volume XI, old series / III, new...
2. (broadly) Having gracefully small feet.
   • In a well-proportioned physical make-up the stature is about 6 to 6⅓ times the foot length, but in adults the feet range in size from a fashionable No. 1 to the hob-nailed, double sole and tap, No. 12 of the miner; in beauty from those of a Cinderellian belle to the hideous club hoofs of the poor...1889 March 31, “Facts on Feet. How Different People Wear Their Shoes. Character Exhibited In Pedal Motion. The Proud Man Wears Back of Boot Heel. Romance and Song Tell of Human Feet. Clumsiest...
3. Performing gruelling and tedious chores.
   • […] [F]or my purpose in the discussion of poetry is not to furnish a house, but rather, as a Cinderellian drudge, to rid its theory of cobwebs and some of its blinding dust.1919, Henry G. Hartman, “Poetry”, in Aesthetics: A Critical Theory of Art, Columbus, Ohio: R. G. Adams & Co., section III, page 194
4. (broadly) Gruelling and tedious.
   • Each evening, when he returned from work, we’d sail away on a magic carpet to some exotic place. No matter that the hours between were filled with Cinderellian tasks. His love swept away the mundane.2008, Ray Paul, Shards: A Collection of Short Stories, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 75
5. Of, resembling, or characteristic of Cinderella (the fairytale).
   • a cinderellian story. “‘Poor Martha Semple! she is indeed an object of pity,’ says Mrs. Townsend, a cousin of hers; ‘not that she is not well treated, not that she is not very amiable, but she is so remarkably plain; it is quite clear she can never marry. Her three sisters, all such belles, all...1864, H[enry] R[obert] Addison, “An Unlooked for Result”, in “All at Sea” or Recollections of a Half-Pay Officer, London: Ward and Lock, […], page 301
   1. Constituting maltreatment, especially as motivated by favoritism, nepotism, or cronyism.
      • ‘CINDERELLIAN’ TREATMENT OF FARMERS1965 November 25, Cornish Guardian, volume LXV, number 3,385, Bodmin, page 9

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