bachelorship

English edit

bachelorship (countable and uncountable, plural bachelorships)

The state of being a bachelor.
- 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 251:
  It implanted a dagger in the heart of one nobleman, who was a hearer by mere chance, and awoke a tender desire in the breast of another, after so long a period of old bachelorship, that mothers of every description had given him up some time ago.

bachelorhood — see bachelorhood