Mistress definition | Dictionary.com

Synonyms of Mistress

amour, concubine, courtesan, flame, hostess, housekeeper, inamorata, lover, matriarch, matron, paramour, superior

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6 dictionary results for: Mistress

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

mis⋅tress

[mis-tris]

–noun

1.	a woman who has authority, control, or power, esp. the female head of a household, institution, or other establishment.

2.	a woman employing, or in authority over, servants or attendants.

3.	a female owner of an animal, or formerly, a slave.

4.	a woman who has the power of controlling or disposing of something at her own pleasure: mistress of a great fortune.

5.	(sometimes initial capital letter) something regarded as feminine that has control or supremacy: Great Britain, the mistress of the seas.

6.	a women who is skilled in something, as an occupation or art.

7.	a woman who has a continuing, extramarital sexual relationship with one man, esp. a man who, in return for an exclusive and continuing liaison, provides her with financial support.

8.	British. a female schoolteacher; schoolmistress.

9.	(initial capital letter) a term of address in former use and corresponding to Mrs., Miss, or Ms.

10.	Archaic. sweetheart.

Origin:
1275–1325; ME maistresse < MF, OF, equiv. to maistre master + -esse -ess

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

mis·tress (mĭs'trĭs) Pronunciation Key
n.

A woman who has a continuing sexual relationship with a usually married man who is not her husband and from whom she generally receives material support.
A woman in a position of authority, control, or ownership, as the head of a household: "Thirteen years had seen her mistress of Kellynch Hall" (Jane Austen).
1. A woman who owns or keeps an animal: a cat sitting in its mistress's lap.
2. A woman who owns a slave.
3. A nation or country that has supremacy over others: Great Britain, once the mistress of the seas.
4. Something personified as female that directs or reigns: "my mistress . . . the open road" (Robert Louis Stevenson).
A woman with ultimate control over something: the mistress of her own mind.
1. A nation or country that has supremacy over others: Great Britain, once the mistress of the seas.
2. Something personified as female that directs or reigns: "my mistress . . . the open road" (Robert Louis Stevenson).
A woman who has mastered a skill or branch of learning: a mistress of the culinary art.
Mistress Used formerly as a courtesy title when speaking to or of a woman.
Chiefly British A woman schoolteacher.

[Middle English maistresse, from Old French, feminine of maistre, master, from Latin magister; see master.]

Usage Note: English has no shortage of terms for women whose behavior is viewed as licentious, but it is difficult to come up with a list of comparable terms used of men. One researcher, Julia Penelope, stopped counting after she reached 220 such labels for women, both current and historical, but managed to locate only 20 names for promiscuous men. Murial R. Schultz found more than 500 slang terms for prostitute but could find just 65 for the male terms whoremonger and pimp. A further imbalance appears in the connotations of many of these terms. While the terms generally applying only to women, like tramp and slut, are almost always strongly negative, corresponding terms used for men, such as stud and Casanova, often carry positive associations. · Curiously, many of the negative terms used for women derive from words that once had neutral or even positive associations. For instance, the word mistress, now mainly used to refer to a woman who is involved in an extramarital sexual relationship, originally served simply as a neutral counterpart to mister or master. The term madam, while still a respectful form of address, has had sexual connotations since the early 1700s and has been used to refer to the owner of a brothel since the early 1900s.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
mistress

c.1320, "female teacher, governess," from O.Fr. maistresse, fem. of maistre "master" (see master). Sense of "a woman who employs others or has authority over servants" is from 1426. Sense of "kept woman of a married man" is from 1430.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

mistress
noun
1.	an adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man
2.	a woman schoolteacher (especially one regarded as strict) [syn: schoolmarm]
3.	a woman master who directs the work of others

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

The late queen's gentlewoman! a knight's daughter! To be her mistress' mistress! --Shak.

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. --Addison.

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 concubine; a loose woman with whom one consorts habitually. --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). --Cowper.

6. A married woman; a wife. [Scot.]

Several of the neighboring mistresses had assembled to witness the event of this memorable evening. --Sir W. Scott.

7. The old name of the jack at bowls. --Beau. & Fl.

To be one's own mistress, to be exempt from control by another person.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Mistress

Mis"tress\, v. i. To wait upon a mistress; to be courting. [Obs.] --Donne.