Meaning of auntship | Babel Free

Definitions

The status of being an aunt.

countable, uncountable

Examples

“This was a Mrs Archer, to whom I was taught to pay⟳ homage, under the appellation of Aunt Archer; the auntship consisting in that her husband had had for a first wife a sister of my grandmother.”

“A quick survey of Austen's novels yields an aunt's-eye view⟳ of the variety of aunts: in Pride and Prejudice, Lady Catherine stands corrected by Elizabeth's aunts Gardiner and Philips, who balance one another; Mrs. Norris and Lady Bertram are opposite kinds of aunts in Mansfield Park⟳; the middle-aged aunt mentioned in The Watsons surprises her niece's family by still being a scandalously sexual creature; and Emma, of course, is among other things a novel about auntship, with its heroine who draws hasty chalk portraits of her sister's children (all looking more or less the same) and claims she will never marry⟳ partly because she "will always have⟳ a niece with me" as an object of affection.”

“Edith, still rather in a dream⟳, rather resentful that her dream⟳ was being broken, pulled herself together and said she had had a very nice time at Northbridge, and Mrs. Dunsford had said she did hope⟳ Mrs. Halliday would come⟳ and see⟳ the portrait of their ancestress; using the word ancestress because she could not remember⟳ exactly what degree of auntship or cousinship it was.”

“Christina's letter to Mary Haydon about prospective auntship shows that she had looked forward⟳ to greater friendship. Now, barely a year later, this hope⟳ had vanished; and a certain regret⟳ tinged Christina's later references to Fame.”

CEFR level