View synonyms for prima donna

prima donna

[ pree-muh don-uh, prim-uh; Italian pree-mah dawn-nah ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

, plural pri·ma don·nas, Italian pri·me don·ne [pree, -me , dawn, -ne].

a first or principal female singer of an opera company.
a temperamental person; a person who takes adulation and privileged treatment as a right and reacts with petulance to criticism or inconvenience.

prima donna

/ ˈpriːmə ˈdɒnə /

prima donna

A vain and overly sensitive person who is temperamental and difficult to work with: “That Jenkins girl is a good gymnast, but she certainly is a prima donna.” In opera , the prima donna is the principal female soloist. From Italian, meaning “first lady.”

First recorded in 1760–70; from Italian: literally, “first lady”; prime, duenna

C19: from Italian: first lady

Allen Barra blasts him for being a mediocre prima donna who will be beaten by the Jets.

How do you think that shyness played out during the 2008 season when he was accused of being a prima donna?

The tenor dies; the prima donna appears to do the same, but the libretto consoles you by declaring that she only swoons.

He sang bravura airs with a facility of vocalisation any prima donna might have envied.

Even here the glorious voice of the prima donna floated clear as a silver bell.

The young girl became, thanks to him, the celebrated prima donna of the Fenice theatre, at Venice in 1820.

It was a dismissal, immediate, discourteous, on the grounds that she was quite unequal to fill the position of prima donna.

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