GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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Found 2 definitions

1.       
   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.]
    A woman having power, authority, or ownership; a woman who exercises authority, is chief, etc.; the female head of a family, a school, etc.
   1913 Webster
   The late queen's gentlewoman! a knight's daughter!
   To be her mistress' mistress!
   Shak.
   
   1913 Webster
   A woman well skilled in anything, or having the mastery over it.
   1913 Webster
   A letter desires all young wives to make themselves mistresses of Wingate's Arithmetic.
   Addison.
   
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   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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   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.
   
   1913 Webster
   +PJC
   A title of courtesy formerly prefixed to the name of a woman, married or unmarried, but now superseded by the contracted forms, Mrs., for a married, and Miss, for an unmarried, woman.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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   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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   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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2.       
   Mistress, v. i. To wait upon a mistress; to be courting. [Obs.]
   Donne.
   
   1913 Webster