Word.ws English Dictionary

young-ladyism

young-ladyism noun: behaviour befitting, or typical of, a young lady.

Noun

young-ladyism (uncountable)

  1. (dated) Behaviour befitting, or typical of, a young lady.
    • Though Lady Mary had none of the young-ladyism or sentimentality of girls of her age, we are not to suppose her either hard or masculine.1860, Grace Wharton, Philip Wharton, The Queens of Society
    • […] Fanny, forgetful of her young-ladyism and her sixteen years, had boxed Tom's ears, and Tom, resenting the insult, had forcibly seated her in the coal-hod, where he held her with one hand while he returned the compliment with the other.1869–1870, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “New Fashions”, in An Old-Fashioned Girl, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1870, →OCLC, page 31

Origin of young-ladyism

From young lady + -ism.

Questions about young-ladyism

What does young-ladyism mean?
Young-ladyism means behaviour befitting, or typical of, a young lady.
What part of speech is young-ladyism?
Young-ladyism is a noun.

Words near young-ladyism in the dictionary

  1. Young-Earther
  2. Young-Earthers
  3. young-hearted
  4. young-lady-like
  5. young-ladyish
  6. young-ladyism
  7. young-ladylike
  8. Young-Laplace equation
  9. Young-Madders syndrome
  10. Young-Simpson syndrome
  11. Youngberg

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: young-ladyism (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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