“剩女”，指的是一些拥有高学历、高收入、高智商、长相也无可挑剔的女性，由于择偶要求比较高，导致在婚姻上得不到理想归宿，而变成“剩女”的大龄女青年。“剩女”的地道英语说法cougar. “剩女”只是指年龄有一点儿大，并非真的嫁不出去，所以在国外不会用leftover形容。比如 My neighbor is an old cougar.

请看在中国“剩女”英语说法最普遍的用法：

这些“三高女”在日本也被称作“3S女”，即“Single(单身)、Seventies(大多数生于上世纪七十年)、Stuck(被卡住了)”。(小编：其实这里的Seventies过几年后就要改成Eighties了吧……)

今天我们来看看“剩女”的英文怎么说吧。

“Leftover ladies” , or shengnü in Chinese, has become a buzzword in the Chinese language. They are well-educated, well-paid and independent. They are also referred to as “3S women:” single, seventies (most were born in the 70s) and stuck.

上句中的“Leftover ladies”就是“剩女”的英语说法。“leftover”这个词可没有什么积极的意思，表示“剩货，残留物，剩饭”等。比如说：She threw the leftovers in the garbage. (她把剩饭倒进垃圾桶。)

另外，我们也可以用“on the shelf”来形容“剩女”。on the shelf，意思是(especially of women)considered to be too old to get married。这个片语的字面意思是“留在架子上”，好比超市里没有人选购的商品。用这个来比喻女人年纪大，嫁不出去，相当于中文里的流行语“剩女”。但对于独身女人来说，这个片语可能有冒犯的意思，所以要小心使用。给个例句：

When we put something on the shelf, it means we plan to delay the time to do it. However, if those, especially women, are on the shelf, they are not married and people now believe they are too old to get married.

我们常常形容一个计划或者一件事情推迟被执行，叫做put it on the shelf。on the shelf 也用来形容那些还没有结婚的女性，她们通常是因为年纪太大而被认为不容易嫁出去。