maiden auntn.
/ˌmeɪdn ˈɑːnt/, /ˌmeɪdn ˈant/, U.S. /ˌmeɪdən ˈænt/, /ˌmeɪdən ˈɑnt/ An unmarried aunt, esp. one who is elderly. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > kinsman or relation > aunt > [noun] > unmarried
maiden aunt1709
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > unmarried person(s) > unmarried woman > [noun] > elderly > who is an aunt
maiden aunt1709
1709 M. Prior Poems Several Occasions 244 The ancient Maiden Aunt.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 7. ¶4 A Maiden Aunt..who is one of these Antiquated Sybils.
1758 S. Johnson Idler 30 Sept. 201 Maiden Aunts with small fortunes.
1847 C. M. Yonge Scenes & Characters xiii. 158 That worst of plagues, a prying maiden aunt.
1917 T. S. Eliot Prufrock & Other Observ. 33 Miss Helen Slingsby was my maiden aunt.
1938 W. S. Maugham Summing Up 176 I..ask myself whether in another forty years the bright young things of current letters will appear as jejune as do now their maiden aunts of The Yellow Book.
1992 N.Y. Times 5 May b12/4 If a girl was coming out at a tea dance, you knew that it was being given by the left hand of a maiden aunt.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1709