Word.ws English Dictionary

old-maidish

old-maidish adjective: like an old maid; prim; precise; particular.

Adjective

old-maidish (comparative more old-maidish, superlative most old-maidish)

  1. Like an old maid; prim; precise; particular.
    • ‘You must forgive me,’ he said. ‘I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It comes partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details. It’s very pernickety and old-maidish really, but then when I’m working I generally have to eat my meals...1953, Ian Fleming, chapter 8, in Casino Royale, page 48
    • At thirty-six, I'm no bargain in the marriage market. But Aunt Emily in Toronto, still single at fifty-six, is even more old-maidish than I am and yet she refuses the label.1982, Joy Kogawa, Obasan, page 8

Forms of old-maidish

comparativemore old-maidish
superlativemost old-maidish

Origin of old-maidish

From old maid + -ish.

Questions about old-maidish

What does old-maidish mean?
Old-maidish means like an old maid; prim; precise; particular.
What part of speech is old-maidish?
Old-maidish is an adjective.

Words near old-maidish in the dictionary

  1. old-growth forests
  2. old-hat
  3. old-line
  4. old-maidenism
  5. old-maidhood
  6. old-maidish
  7. old-maidism
  8. old-maidisms
  9. old-man
  10. old-man-yells-at-cloud
  11. old-men

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: old-maidish (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.

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