Meanings
plural hoydenisms
- countableuncountableThe behaviour of a hoyden.
After a decade of hoydenism, she developed a strategy called “The Four Man Plan,” or “4MP.”
2007 October 14, Liesl Schillinger, “It Adds Up to Love (Check Your Math)”, in New York Times1 more example
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.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounmasculinity in women (especially in girls and young women)
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Cite this entry
hoydenism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoydenism
“hoydenism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoydenism. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hoydenism,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoydenism.
Source: hoydenism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.