History Main / OldMaid

* ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'''s [[BellyDancer snake charmer Ruthie]] (who has a son and has no intention of getting married), [[TheVamp bearded lady Lila]] (whose whatever-that-is relationship with Lodz isn't marriage), and [[TheDragon Iris]] [[MagnificentBastard Crowe]] (whose [[BrotherSisterIncest relationship]] with her [[DarkMessiah brother]] doesn't leave too much time for getting married).

* In China, women who are unmarried past the age of 27 are called ''shèngnǚ'' (剩女; IPA: ʂəŋ˥˨ny˨˩), or [[http://shanghaiist.com/2013/02/05/chinese_women_spend_thousands_of_yu.php "leftover women"]] even in ''state-run media''.

* ''Anime/GregoryHorrorShow'': The Second Guest is an unmarried woman who is, if Judgement Boy's observation is true, in her late twenties/early thirties. The fact that she chose her career over her boyfriend (resulting in him breaking up with her) and that she had to watch her best friend marry the guy actually turns out to be the root of [[SanitySlippage all her mental problems.]] [[TheWoobie Poor woman...]]

** In the "Distinguished Family's Consecutive Accidental Death Case", the eldest daughter Nobuko not only is single while her younger sister Yasue is married and her brother Hieomi is engaged... she is already ''39''. It doesn't help that she treats her brother's girlfriend Miyuki (herself a little past the limit) like shit; her father reacts via openly citing the trope.
-->'''Nagato''': I apologize for my daughter's behavior... [[LampshadeHanging I believe she's like this since she hasn't been able to get married]].
-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker Conan]]''' (inner thoughts): With a personality like ''[[HairTriggerTemper th]][[JerkAss at]]'', she never will.

** In ''Literature/EmilyOfNewMoon'' -- book three -- ''Emily's Quest,'' the Murray family eventually gives up on finding Emily a husband, concluding that, eccentric, artistic, and temperamental as she is, she'll never settle down to be a proper housewife.

An associated Japanese concept is the Christmas Cake (formerly a separate trope): the idea that just as a Christmas cake stops being desirable after December 25, a woman stops being desirable for marriage after age 25. This has since given way to the less popular "New Years' Noodles", where the age limit is increased to 31 (after December 31).

* ''Literature/WashingtonSquare'' plays with this trope and ends up being one of the few works to portray it ''positively''; the main character never marries her GoldDigger love interest or anyone, and is shown to embrace spinsterhood and be confident in herself in a way she never was when she had to worry about the prospects of marriage.

* Alix Crown in ''Literature/QuillsWindow'' is an especially blatant example, as she is attractive and wealthy in addition to being single at twenty-five. Incidentally, she does have a good reason for this, as legally she would stand to lose many of her legal rights if she were to get married.
* In the ''Literature/{{Little House|OnThePrairie}}'' books starring Laura's daughter, Rose, the Wilders board an old maid teacher. Rose's town friend, Blanche Coday, sings a mean song about how she must be ugly if no one wants to marry her. Rose asks her why, thinking to herself that her blind Aunt Mary is an old maid. Blanche basically shrugs and says that what everyone says. After some mishaps, the teacher ''does'' end up married.
* Jo of ''Literature/LittleWomen'' was originally meant to be this, as Alcott was quite intent on showing that marriage is not the most important thing in the life of a woman and being an old maid is perfectly okay. Sadly, she had to give in to fan pressure.
* ''Literature/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom''
** Katarina's personal maid Anne is in her early 20s and approaching the point where women find it difficult to marry. Katarina and her father, Duke Claes, are both worried about her not being able to get married, so when Anne's father comes with a marriage partner the duke is relieved. However, Katarina can't bear to part from her maid and close friend and begs her not to go, leaving Anne to call it off. However, Anne is secretly relieved because even apart from her proposed fiancee being a creep, she doesn't like her own father and didn't want to get married in the first place. She's much happier serving Katarina and truly adores her, so becoming an old maid isn't just okay, it's actually what she wants. If she doesn't marry she can stay with Katarina forever.
** The head maid is a straighter example. She wasn't as pretty or outgoing as her sisters, so she focused on her career instead. When she got promoted to head maid she focused even harder to show she deserved the job. Before she knew it, she had become the strict no-fun boss that nobody really likes even though she's actually quite a kind person and has lots of girly hobbies like making sweets. Katarina helps her open up a little and, unlike Anne, she ''was'' rather lonely and is surprised to find a young gardener courting her not long after.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** [[RebelliousPrincess Arianne Martell]] is only 23, but is considered to be one of these. After all, she lives in a world where marriage at 14 is far from unheard of. Still, while ''she'' wants to get married, she doesn't suffer the usual social consequences of being a so-called Old Maid -- after all, she is a princess and the heiress of Dorne, she is obviously very attractive and can lead a sexually liberated life and lives in a region where contempt for unmarried women is mostly non-existent, in contrast for the rest of the Seven Kingdoms.
** Lollys Stokeworth is unmarried at 33. Her mother, Lady Tanda Stokeworth, is desperate to marry her off to produce an heir, because her eldest daughter, Falyse, is childless despite being married for ten years (her husband is unfaithful and prefers the company of maidens over her). Too bad that Lollys is obese, dimwitted, and loathed by pretty much everyone. Then things get worse when she ends up raped by fifty men during the riots at King's Landing, thus making her DefiledForever. Eventually, Bronn decides to accept Cersei Lannister's offer to marry Lollys, and though he obviously uses her as a MealTicket he seems to have some fondness for her.
* In ''Literature/TheThornBirds'', this idea is referenced several times. Meggie is nearly twenty-five and has never dated due to her continued love for Father Ralph. This leads her to quickly marry Luke O'Neill. Meggie's daughter, Justine is similar, at the end of the novel, she is nearly thirty, and is not close to marriage, but ends up finding love in her longtime friend, Rain.

* In ''Literature/LonelyWerewolfGirl'', Thrix falls (reluctantly) into this category, not so much due to her being a werwolf with a borderline psychotic family, but more to her being a chronic workaholic.

* ''Literature/TheGargoyle'': The trope is referenced by name and explained in relation to Sayuri and her family; she disregards the 'rule' and goes off to America, where [[spoiler:she eventually meets and marries a man named Gregor, although the wedding comes [[ShotgunWedding a bit late]], and well after 25.]]
* In ''Literature/TheAgeOfInnocence'', Newland Archer's sister Janie is indicated to be approaching this point. When her mother balks at giving away her wedding dress, wanting to save it for her daughter, she is reminded that Janie is "nearing the age where pearl grey poplin and no bridesmaids would be more appropriate", rather than the elaborate ceremonies meant for younger brides.
* Creator/VCAndrews:
** In ''Literature/GardenOfShadows'', Olivia mentions that at 24 years old she was already considered an "old maid." She rapidly deludes herself into thinking that she loves Malcolm Foxworth because she believes she will never have another chance at marriage.
** Olivia Gordon of the Literature/LoganSeries marries a man she doesn't love -- partly to show that she can land a wealthy man like her sister, but also because she's close to this trope and all the girls who attended school with her are now married.
** In the De Beers series, Willow's cousin Margaret worries about being too old for marriage and is envious of Willow marrying young.
** An extreme example is mentioned in ''Literature/{{Heaven}}''. The hill people marry ''very'' young - Heaven's own mother was 13 when she married, and although she was from the city, that's the normal age for the local girls. Heaven's grandmother advises her to wait until 15, considered a daringly late age, so that she can finish her education and is old enough to make a sensible decision.

* ''Literature/ARoseForEmily'' tells the story of Emily Grierson, an old maid whose father dominated her and kept her from ever meeting men. She took up with a handsome fellow, but just as it seemed things were getting serious, he vanished. The townspeople therefore refer to her and treat her as an Old Maid, but are never really sure...

* ''Domina'' Adelheid von Stechlin and the other members of the foundation for unmarried noblewomen in Kloster Wutz in Theodor Fontane's ''Literature/DerStechlin''.
* Amer of ''Literature/ToothAndClaw'', despite the fact that she, like every other character in the story, is a dragon. Her role as a servant to the Agornin establishment is implied to have saved her from the fate most female dragons in her situation would've suffered. In the setting, a female is either a maiden, married... or dinner.

* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', there is a family of old maids, who sell their business to Jerin's sisters because they don't have any daughters who could inherit it. As women in this culture are of marriageable age as long as one of their sisters is fertile, they are really ''old'' maids.

* ''Literature/ForbiddenSea'': Auntie Minnah, who never married and lives with the Keynnmans, dotes on Adrianne's little sister Cecily while openly despising Adrianne, and Adrianne eventually realizes why - Minnah is full of bitterness about being unwanted, and as the plain, second-best older sister, Adrianne reminds her of herself.

* Ellen Mary Jakes from ''Literature/TheHampdenshireWonder'' narrowly escapes this fate, being so plain that she is still single at forty-two. She has resigned herself to spinsterhood when she learns that former cricket champion George "Ginger" Stott is looking for a wife in order to have a son he can train into a great cricket player. She goes up to him and makes her case for why he should marry her, and Ginger, who is borderline asexual and willing to marry any woman who can give him a child, agrees.
* ''Literature/TheYoungDiana'':
** The titular protagonist is a spinster in her forties who lives with her parents. When she was a young woman, she was strung along for seven years by a man who eventually abandoned her, and was unable to find another one before she became too old to be considered marriageable. Her parents are desperately ashamed of her, no matter how hard she works around the house to make them comfortable.
** Diana's friend Sophy Lansing is a happily unmarried thirty-five-year-old suffragette who is grateful to have escaped the AwfulWeddedLife of many of her friends.
* ''Literature/AmericanFuji'': Alex meets a 25-year-old woman who is unhappy with her current boyfriend, but fears that if she leaves him, she will not be able to find another boyfriend. The trope is also a source of much misery for expatriate Gaby, who keeps getting lectured by older men about how, now that she's in her thirties, she should try and settle down with a man.
* ''Literature/FearAndTrembling'' is a semi-autobiographical novel by Amélie Nothomb in which she describes her disastrous experience as a foreign OfficeLady in a Japanese corporation, her immediate superior is an unmarried 29-year-old woman. It's hinted that her parents are desperate to see her get married before she turns 30 (which she doesn't).
* In the novel ''Literature/FlowerDrumSong'', Helen Chao is a plain girl who hopes to marry Ta because she's getting on in years (she's mid-twenties and unmarried!) to the degree that she gets him drunk and date rapes him. [[spoiler: When he rejects her, she kills herself rather than live as an OldMaid]]. For what it's worth, in 1950s Chinatown, laws prevented marrying outside one's ethnicity and immigration quotas meant that there were more men than women - meaning females could be very particular about who they married.
* ''Literature/HighSchoolDXD'': Rossweisse stresses about never even having had a boyfriend... despite being similar in age to her sudents, and a Valkyrie (later half-Devil) in a series where supernatural beings have life expectancies in the quadruple digits. Her previous employer was a DirtyOldMan who was undermining her self-esteem to improve his own chance (yes, that's ''Odin'' by the way). That said, of all of Issei's lovers/fiancees, Rossweisse is the one who dresses and acts like an adult: VagueAge aside, Rossweisse is a ''teacher''.
* ''Literature/TheHouseOfMirth'''s Lily is twenty-nine, almost "on the shelf" as far as the Gilded Age is concerned.
* ''Literature/NoRin'': Bekki Natsumi claims to be 40 years old, but only looks to be in her mid-20's. She often makes it a point to mention her single status to her class a lot as well, which often sours their mood but also breaks up any arguments that may have been occurring too.

* ''Literature/TrappedInADatingSimTheWorldOfOtomeGamesIsToughForMobs'': GenderInverted: For a poor male noble like Leon, their only chance at having a decent life is to attract a wife before turning 21, and just having to hope it's not someone abusive. Otherwise, they will be CannonFodder likely to die by UriahGambit for widow pensions, or MadeASlave by the Forest of Ladies conspiracy. As such, a significant part of the story is Leon learning to throw [[TeaIsClassy the perfect tea party]] as part of these efforts. Basically, the story treats being assessed by a GoldDigger criteria as being equivalent to a woman being assessed only for her body, and uses that for a PersecutionFlip.

* ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'': Shinobu is in her mid-late 20s and a dedicated police captain of the Special Vehicles 1st section. As such, her mother worries about her chances of marriage, fearing she may be injured before she finds a husband. While Shinobu appreciates her mother's concern, she appears to be in no rush to get married. Though, [[LikeAnOldMarriedCouple given the way she and her fellow captain, Gotoh, relate to each other]], you'd think she already ''was''.

* In the marriage obsessed world of ''So Happy For You'', women regardless of sexuality who haven’t been married by 27 are called "leftovers". If they hit 35, they’re called "rotten" and considered by society to be unfit for marriage. They’re even given a countdown to their 27th or 35th birthdays. Men of course, aren’t held to the same standard. Much of the conflict between protagonist Robin and her friend Ellie is Ellie accepting a proposal from a {{Jerkass}} because she’s 34. [[spoiler: The social pressure is also part of the reason why Ellie tries to kill Robin for her reluctance to be her maid of honor.]]

** An extreme example is mentioned in ''Literature/{{Heaven}}''. The hill people marry ''very'' young (Heaven's own mother was 13 when she married). Heaven's grandmother advises her to wait until 15, considered a daringly late age, because she would then be old enough to make a sensible choice.

* In act I, Scene 2 of the famed Creator/WilliamShakespeare tragedy ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' Juliet's mother seems to think she is a Renaissance Italian version of this. Makes sense considering that Lady Capulet was ''already a mother'' at Juliet's age (13), but everyone else sensibly believes Juliet might be a bit young to get married. Her father has a whole speech in which he says that he wouldn't consider her even eligible for marriage until she's sixteen, only capitulating later when he's drunk and grieving his nephew. On top of that, church records show the average age at first marriage when the play was written [[http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/family/marriage.html#juliet wasn't that far from what it is today]], meaning even the first audience would have thought Lady Capulet was being pretty hyperbolic.

* ''VideoGame/{{Atelier}}'' series: