Hoydenism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The behaviour of a hoyden. countable, uncountable

    "1899, Mary A. Ward, Life and works of the sisters Brontë, Introduction to Jane Eyre And there can be no doubt that there was in Miss Bronte a curious vein of recklessness, roughness, one might also say - hoydenism - that exists side by side with an exquisite delicacy and a true dignity, and is none the less Irish and Celtic for that."

  2. 2
    masculinity in women (especially in girls and young women) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
tomboyishness

Example

More examples

"1899, Mary A. Ward, Life and works of the sisters Brontë, Introduction to Jane Eyre And there can be no doubt that there was in Miss Bronte a curious vein of recklessness, roughness, one might also say - hoydenism - that exists side by side with an exquisite delicacy and a true dignity, and is none the less Irish and Celtic for that."

Etymology

From hoyden + -ism.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.