spinster

This image may have been reinforced by a book Augustus wrote about her after her death that painted her as "this crazy spinster lady who lived in Paris".

From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2026

“I’m a geriatric pregnant spinster who puts crystals in her bra,” Helen says in an unusual moment of self-awareness.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2025

The house we lost was built in 1913 for a spinster heiress named Helen T. Longstreth.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2025

"She's described in the record as a spinster," said Prof English.

From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2024

It was the nasal voice of Miss Grybas, the spinster teacher from school.

From "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys

The closest I have found have been eccentric spinsters and ambivalent parents, in a long line from Doris Lessing and DH Lawrence, Barbara Pym and Rachel Cusk.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 25, 2020

As her New York Times obituary put it, “She specialized in sourness, or, more politely, acerbity, which she used to her comic advantage in roles as housekeepers, spinsters, wicked stepmothers, nuns and back-talking secretaries.”

From Slate ● Aug. 16, 2019

"This is the nature of the debate on things this big, like tax reform," Ryan said."You've got pundits and spinsters and all of this spinmeisters out there, you know, confusing the public."

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2017

Southern belles, frustrated spinsters, power-hungry TV execs, nuns, clergymen and even kings and queens.

From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2012

How could we have guessed as we sat there—two middle-aged spinsters and an old man— that in place of memories were about to be given adventures such as we had never dreamed of?

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom