GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English
last match results
Found 2 definitions
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Mistress (?), n. [OE. maistress, OF. maistresse, F. maîtresse, LL. magistrissa, for L. magistra, fem. of magister. See Master, Mister, and cf. Miss a young woman.]
1. A woman having power, authority, or ownership; a woman who exercises authority, is chief, etc.; the female head of a family, a school, etc.
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The late queen's gentlewoman! a knight's daughter!
To be her mistress' mistress! Shak.
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2. A woman well skilled in anything, or having the mastery over it.
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A letter desires all young wives to make themselves mistresses of Wingate's Arithmetic. Addison.
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3. A woman regarded with love and devotion; she who has command over one's heart; a beloved object; a sweetheart. [Poetic] Clarendon.
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4. A woman filling the place, but without the rights, of a wife; a woman having an ongoing usually exclusive sexual relationship with a man, who may provide her with financial support in return; a concubine; a loose woman with whom one consorts habitually; as, “both his wife and his mistress attended his funeral”. Spectator.
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5. A title of courtesy formerly prefixed to the name of a woman, married or unmarried, but now superseded by the contracted forms, Mrs., for a married, and Miss, for an unmarried, woman.
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Now Mistress Gilpin (careful soul). Cowper.
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6. A married woman; a wife. [Scot.]
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Several of the neighboring mistresses had assembled to witness the event of this memorable evening. Sir W. Scott.
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7. The old name of the jack at bowls. Beau. & Fl.
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To be one's own mistress, to be exempt from control by another person.
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Mistress, v. i. To wait upon a mistress; to be courting. [Obs.] Donne.
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