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dame

noun
/deɪm/US

Etymology

From Middle English dame, dam (“noble lady”), from Old French dame (“lady; term of address for a woman; the queen in card games and chess”), from Latin domina (“mistress of the house”), feminine form of dominus (“lord, master, ruler; owner of a residence”), or from Latin domus (“home, house”). Doublet of domina and donna.

  1. derived from domus
  2. derived from domina
  3. derived from dame
  4. inherited from dame

Definitions

  1. Usually capitalized as Dame

    Usually capitalized as Dame: a title equivalent to Sir for a female knight.

    • Dame Edith Sitwell

  2. A matron at a school, especially Eton College.

  3. In traditional pantomime

    In traditional pantomime: a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag.

  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. A woman.

      • I can see that would be the kind of a chap that the dames would stand for everlastingly.
      • There is nothin' like a dame / Nothin' in the world. / There is nothin' you can name / That is anythin' like a dame.

    2. A lady, a woman.

      • Now, thou, deare dame, that workſte theſe ſweete effectes in mee, / Vouchsafe my zeale, that onely ſeeke to ſerve and honour thee.
      • [T]hough they were first-form'd dames of Earth, / And in whose sparcklinge and refulgent eyes / The glorious sonne did still delight to rise; […]
      • And do you think my Dame Dobſon don't know a little better than you? She tells you, you need ſay no more, and 'tis an affront to her Art not to believe her; and I'le not ſee my Dame affronted.

    3. The hereditary feudal ruler (seigneur) of Sark, when the title is held by a woman in her…

      The hereditary feudal ruler (seigneur) of Sark, when the title is held by a woman in her own right.

    4. A queen.

    5. To make a dame.

      • Jonathan’s first edition of Calais was signed by Dame Agatha [Christie]. Not as Dame Agatha, just plain Agatha. She got Damed later.
      • […]Joanna Lumley, both pros in their respective fields, and both Brits in their respective hearts, are now both newly knighted (damed, in Lumley’s case) by England’s Queen Lizzy.

    6. The titular prefix given to a female knight

The neighborhood

Derived

beldame, damehood, dameish, damely, dame school, dameship, damewort, daming, hake's-dame, schooldame

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for dame. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA