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Pronunciation varies by accent · noun
Any animal with a thorny back, especially marine animals, such as:.
[A] society of honest gentlemen [is holding a lottery] for the benefit of all single ladies, widows, maids, or thornbacks […]
Spinsters. — In a society where marriages were formed very early, girls often wedding at sixteen or under, […] At the age of thirty a spinster was called a "thornback ,” but bachelors and thornbacks were not the only people who […]
"And I'll be a thornback spinster! Oh, I'd rather die of the pox than that!" She bolted away to spill her bitter tears out of doors in a place where no one could observe her. Her bold adventure had suddenly turned against her.
Use thornback when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Thornback means Any animal with a thorny back, especially marine animals, such as:.
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
[A] society of honest gentlemen [is holding a lottery] for the benefit of all single ladies, widows, maids, or thornbacks […]
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