mistress

5 definitions found

mistress - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Mistress \Mis"tress\, n. [OE. maistress, OF. maistresse, F.
     ma[^i]tresse, 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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              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.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]
  
     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        woman, married or unmarried, but now superseded by the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 \Mis"tress\, v. i.
     To wait upon a mistress; to be courting. [Obs.] --Donne.
     [1913 Webster]

mistress - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  mistress
      n 1: an adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing
           extramarital sexual relationship with a man [syn:
           mistress, kept woman, fancy woman]
      2: a woman schoolteacher (especially one regarded as strict)
         [syn: schoolmarm, schoolma'am, schoolmistress,
         mistress]
      3: a woman master who directs the work of others

mistress - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  20 Moby Thesaurus words for "Mistress":
     Frau, Fraulein, Miss, Mlle, Mme, Mmes, dame, dona, donna, lady,
     madam, madame, mademoiselle, mem-sahib, mesdames, senhora,
     senhorita, signora, signorina, vrouw
  
  

  69 Moby Thesaurus words for "mistress":
     Dulcinea, abbess, beneficiary, best girl, cestui, cestui que trust,
     cestui que use, chatelaine, concubine, dame, deedholder, dowager,
     doxy, dream girl, duenna, educatress, feoffee, feudatory,
     first lady, gill, girl, girl friend, goodwife, governess,
     great lady, headmistress, homemaker, householder, housewife,
     inamorata, instructress, jill, jo, kept mistress, kept woman, lady,
     lady love, laird, landlady, landlord, lass, lassie, lord, lover,
     madam, master, matriarch, matron, mesne, mesne lord,
     mother superior, odalisque, old lady, owner, paramour, playmate,
     proprietary, proprietor, proprietress, proprietrix, rentier,
     schooldame, schoolmarm, schoolmistress, squire, titleholder,
     tutoress, unofficial wife, woman