Mistress
Mistress , noun
[Old English maistress, Old French maistresse, French maîtresse, Late Latin magistrissa, for Latin magistra, fem. of magister. See Master, Mister, and compare 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.
The late queen's gentlewoman! a knight's daughter!
To be her mistress' mistress!
2.
A woman well skilled in anything, or having the mastery over it.
A letter desires all young wives to make themselves mistresses of Wingate's Arithmetic.
3.
A woman regarded with love and devotion; she who has command over one's heart; a beloved object; a sweetheart. [Poetic] — Clarendon
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
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A title of courtesy formerly prefixed to the name of a woman, married or unmarried, but now superseded by the contracted forms, Mrs., for a married, and Miss, for an unmarried, woman.
Now Mistress Gilpin (careful soul).
6.
A married woman; a wife. [Scottish]
Several of the neighboring mistresses had assembled to witness the event of this memorable evening.
7.
The old name of the jack at bowls. — Beau. & Fl
Collocations (1)
To be one's own mistress , to be exempt from control by another person.
Mistress , intransitive verb
To wait upon a mistress; to be courting. [Obsolete] — Donne