Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Mastery

Mastery , noun

[Old French maistrie.]

1.
The position or authority of a master; dominion; command; supremacy; superiority.
If divided by mountains, they will fight for the mastery of the passages of the tops. — Sir W. Raleigh
2.
Superiority in war or competition; victory; triumph; preeminence.
The voice of them that shout for mastery. — Ex. xxxii. 18
Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. — 1 Cor. ix. 25
O, but to have gulled him Had been a mastery. — B. Jonson
3.
Contest for superiority. [Obsolete] — Holland
4.
A masterly operation; a feat. [Obsolete]
I will do a maistrie ere I go. — Chaucer
5.
the philosopher's stone. [Obsolete]
6.
The act process of mastering; the state of having mastered.
He could attain to a mastery in all languages. — Tillotson
The learning and mastery of a tongue, being unpleasant in itself, should not be cumbered with other difficulties. — Locke