hoyden

/ˈhɔɪdən/

hoyden noun: a rude, uncultured or rowdy girl or woman.

Noun

hoyden (plural hoydens)

(archaic) A rude, uncultured or rowdy girl or woman.
- She is a hoyden, one will say. At any rate she is not a lady, another will exclaim. I have suspected her all through, a third will declare; she has no idea of the dignity of a matron; or of the peculiar propriety which her position demands.1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers: In Three Volumes, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, OCLC 911659634; republished [London]: D. Campbell Publishers, 1992 (Everyman's Library...
- her ladyship burst suddenly into the schoolroom to introduce Mr. Perriam, who, as she announced from the doorway to Maisie, wouldn't believe his ears that one had a great hoyden of a daughter.1897 October 16, Henry James, What Maisie Knew, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Herbert S. Stone & Co., →OCLC

hoyden (comparative more hoyden, superlative most hoyden)

Like a hoyden: high-spirited and boisterous; saucy, tomboyish.
- Many of the country girls I met appeared to me pretty – that is, to have fine complexions, sparkling eyes, and a kind of arch, hoyden playfulness which distinguishes the village coquette.1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, letter 22
- At these primitive tea parties the utmost propriety and dignity of deportment prevailed. No flirting nor coquetting – no gambling of old ladies, nor hoyden chattering and romping of young ones […]1809, Washington Irving, “chapter 3”, in Knickerbocker's History of New York

hoyden (third-person singular simple present hoydens, present participle hoydening, simple past and past participle hoydened)

துடுக்காரவாரப் பெண்

It was the same conflicting emotion that made her desire to appear a delicate and high-bred lady with boys and to be, as well, a hoyden who was not above a few kisses.1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC:
A great, strong, heavy girl, a hoyden, not pretty, her face distinguished only by youth, by health.1997, Andrew Miller, Ingenious Pain:

Noun
plural	hoydens
alternative form	hoiden
Adjective
comparative	more hoyden
superlative	most hoyden
Verb
third-person singular present	hoydens
present participle	hoydening
past participle	hoydened
past	hoydened

Probably from Middle Dutch heyden (“heathen, gypsy”), heidin (Modern Dutch heiden).

What does hoyden mean?: Hoyden means a rude, uncultured or rowdy girl or woman.
What is hoyden in Tamil?: Hoyden in Tamil is துடுக்காரவாரப் பெண். See Hoyden meaning in Tamil.
How do you use hoyden in a sentence?: It was the same conflicting emotion that made her desire to appear a delicate and high-bred lady with boys and to be, as well, a hoyden who was not above a few kisses.
What part of speech is hoyden?: Hoyden can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce hoyden?: Hoyden is pronounced /ˈhɔɪdən/.
What is the plural of hoyden?: The plural of hoyden is hoydens.

Adapted from Wiktionary: hoyden (page history and authors); hoyden (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hoyden.wav.

Cite this entry: “hoyden.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hoyden. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.