- slattern
- noun /ˈslætɜːn/a) A slut.
3. Cookery is familiar to her, with the price and quality of provisions; and she is a ready accountant. Her chief view, however, is to serve her mother and lighten her cares. She holds cleanliness and neetness to be indispensable in a woman; and that a slattern is disgusting, especially if beautiful.
b) A dirty and untidy woman.<ref name="COED-etym&def"/><ref name="M–W-hyph&def"/><ref name="WNS-defs">“[ slattern]” defined using WordNet Search – 3·0</ref>[…] How many times I have heard a woman called a slattern, because she could not keep a house in order, when had she been allowed to write out her sublime thoughts, which were all in another direction, she would have astonished the world with her genius. Talk about women getting out of their sphere; can they do so any more than they are now. Look at the thousands of women who are not fit to be mothers, and yet are constantly bringing children into existence, children which will rise up to curse them for that very existence; and why is this? because society is forcing women into marriage, before they have any knowledge of what they are fitted for and what they might excel in. We want better wives, mothers and children, and before we can have this, we must have better women.
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