Auntliness
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The quality of being auntly. uncountable
"In the good old days no family was complete without a spinster aunt to turn to in seasons of distress and grief, measles, whooping-cough, visiting, absence of parents, or unexpected company. More than any other woman, possibly, the spinster aunt has become New.[…]As a type of auntliness she is no longer plentiful, ubiquitous and tenderly considerate of a niecely sneeze or a nephewish whimper, of a brother-in-law’s slippers or a sister-in-law’s gruel or tea."
Example
More examples"In the good old days no family was complete without a spinster aunt to turn to in seasons of distress and grief, measles, whooping-cough, visiting, absence of parents, or unexpected company. More than any other woman, possibly, the spinster aunt has become New.[…]As a type of auntliness she is no longer plentiful, ubiquitous and tenderly considerate of a niecely sneeze or a nephewish whimper, of a brother-in-law’s slippers or a sister-in-law’s gruel or tea."
Etymology
From auntly + -ness.
More for "auntliness"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.