young woman
1. A woman who is young; one in early womanhood.
For the vocative use, see young a. 1 b.
| a 1100 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 310/9 Puella, mæden, oððe ᵹeong wifman. c 1205 Lay. 261 Þeos ȝunge wiman [c 1275 ȝonge] Iwerð hire mid childe. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 4049 Ðe ȝinge wimmen of ðin lond, Faiȝer on siȝte and softe on hond. c 1449 Pecock Repr. ii. xiii. 226 A ȝong womman, which gate myche money to her maistris. 1589 Puttenham Engl. Poesie i. xxvi. (Arb.) 67 Such as had tasted the frutes of loue before, (we call them well experienced young women). 1775 Sheridan Rivals i. ii, You thought, miss! I don't know any business you have to think at all—thought does not become a young woman. 1864 C. M. Yonge Trial vi, Let me tell you, young woman, it is hard on a man who has been at work all day to come home and find a dark house and nobody to speak to. 1887 Blackw. Mag. Dec. 774/2 Hannah More was still a young woman, and also remarkably young for her years. |
2. A female sweetheart; a fiancée. vulgar.
| 1858 Househ. Words 27 Mar. 338/1 It was assumed that I had fallen in love, had made my offer, and had been accepted by my young woman and her family. |
Hence youngˈwomanhood, the condition of being a young woman; young women as a class; youngˈwomanly a., like a young woman.
| 1885 R. Buchanan Matt. iii, [Her change of costume] made her look several years older—in fact, quite young⁓womanly. 1892 Athenæum 20 Feb. 240/3 The Girton girl [is] treated as a distinct species of young-womanhood. |