Old-maidish
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Like an old maid; prim; precise; particular.
"‘You must forgive me,’ he said. ‘I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It comes partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details. It’s very pernickety and old-maidish really, but then when I’m working I generally have to eat my meals alone and it makes them more interesting when one takes trouble.’"
- 1 primly fastidious wordnet
Example
More examples"‘You must forgive me,’ he said. ‘I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It comes partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details. It’s very pernickety and old-maidish really, but then when I’m working I generally have to eat my meals alone and it makes them more interesting when one takes trouble.’"
Etymology
From old maid + -ish.
More for "old-maidish"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.