ladys

ladys (obsolete)

1. plural of lady
   • [1528], [variously attributed to William Barlow, Jerome Barlowe, and William Roy], Rede Me and Be Nott Wrothe for I Saye No Thynge but Trothe. […], [Strasbourg]: [Johann Schott], →OCLC, folio f v, recto:

     Yf they ſett men thus to ſcole ⸝ / I trowe they make many a fole ⸝ / Of ladys and gentill wemen.

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     [Nick] Bot[tom]. There are things in this Comedy of Piramus and Thisby, that will neuer pleaſe. Firſt, Piramus muſt draw a ſword to kill himſelfe; which the Ladys cannot abide. How anſwer you that? / [Tom] Snout. Berlaken, a parlous feare.

     Nick Bottom. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisbe that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself, which the ladies cannot abide. How do you answer that? / Tom Snout. By 'r lakin [i.e., by our Lady], a dire problem.

   • 1686 (first performance), A[phra] Behn, The Luckey Chance, or An Alderman’s Bargain. A Comedy. […], London: […] R. H[olt], for W. Canning, […], published 1687, →OCLC, signature [A3], verso:

     [W]hen they can no other way prevail with the Town, they charge it with the old never failing Scandal———That ’tis not fit for the Ladys: As if (if it were as they falſly give it out) the Ladys were oblig’d to hear Indecencys only from their Pens and Plays and ſome of them have ventur’d to treat ’em as Courſely as ’twas poſſible, without the leaſt Reproach from them; […]

2. genitive of lady
   • 1519, Guil[ielmus] Hormanus [i.e., William Horman], “De pietate […]”, in Vulgaria Viri Doctissimi Guil. Hormani Cæsariburgensis, London: […] Rchardum Pynson [i.e., Richard Pynson] […], →OCLC, folio 9, verso:

     Our ladys ymage ought to ſtande gylte in a tabernacle apon a baſe of marble.

   • 1526 December 2 (Gregorian calendar), “By this ye may se that they that haue but small lernynge somtyme speke truely vnaduysyd”, in A .C. Mery Talys, London: Johannes Rastell, →OCLC, folio xxiii, recto:

     [H]e had ſayd our ladys ſauter euery day wherfoꝛe ſhe gaue hym a lytyll of the oyle. And anone ſe went to another aſkyng hym what he had done foꝛ her ſake which ſayd that he had ſayd .ii ladys ſauters euery day ⸝ wherfoꝛe our lady gaue hym moꝛe of yͤ oytement than ſhe gaue yͤ other.

   • [1528], [variously attributed to William Barlow, Jerome Barlowe, and William Roy], Rede Me and Be Nott Wrothe for I Saye No Thynge but Trothe. […], [Strasbourg]: [Johann Schott], →OCLC, folio f v, recto:

     And ſo to my ladys chamber ⸝ / Formoſt pricketh in the elder ⸝ / Which of theym is moſt auncient.

   • 1686 (first performance), A[phra] Behn, The Luckey Chance, or An Alderman’s Bargain. A Comedy. […], London: […] R. H[olt], for W. Canning, […], published 1687, →OCLC, Act III, scene [iv], page 39:

     Now Sir we are two to two, for this Way you muſt paſs or be taken in the Ladys Lodgings————I’ll firſt adventure out to make you paſs the ſafer.

• ladies (pre-1990 spelling)

ladys f

1. (post-1990) plural of lady