lioness

See also: Lioness

English

Etymology

From Middle English leonesse, lyonesse, from Old French leonesse, lionesse; equivalent to lion +‎ -ess.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈlaɪ.ə.nɪs/, /ˈlaɪ.ə.nɛs/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Noun

lioness (plural lionesses)

  2. A female lion (animal).
    Synonym: (idiomatic) queen of beasts
    • 2023 July 20, Philip Oltermann, “Lioness believed to be on loose in Berlin”, in The Guardian‎[1], →ISSN:
      Residents on the south-western outskirts of Berlin are being urged to stay indoors after overnight sightings of a “loose, dangerous animal”, suspected to be an escaped lioness.
  3. (figurative) A female lion (famous person regarded with interest and curiosity).
    • 1877, The Contemporary Review, volume 29, page 1123:
      The stories were a tremendous success; she was one of the leading lionesses of London literary society.
    • 2005 August 19, James Sturcke, quoting Stuart Bell, “Mowlam a political ‘lioness’”, in The Guardian‎[2], →ISSN:
      The Middlesbrough Labour MP, Stuart Bell, a political and personal friend, said: "Mo was a lioness both in terms of the Labour party and politics nationally. She cut to the quick with any issue and proved herself a stateswoman of the highest order when seeking to negotiate the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement.
    • 2023 October 6, “Memorial honors trailblazing senator Dianne Feinstein: ‘She was a lioness’”, in The Guardian‎[3], sourced from Associated Press, →ISSN:
      The social worker said she talked to her 28-year-old daughter about the battles Feinstein fought so that younger generations of women could dream bigger. “She was a lioness.”
  4. (Oxford University slang, obsolete) A female visitor to a student at Oxford, especially during commemoration week.
    • 1871, John Cordy Jeaffreson, Annals of Oxford, page 305:
      When "lionesses" visiting Oxford for the gay doings of commemoration week spend a morning at Merton, they should look out for Antony Wood's mural tablet in the chapel, […]
    • 1888, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, page 271:
      "Now, boys, keep your eyes open, there must be plenty of lionesses about;" and thus warned, the whole load, including the cornopean player, were on the look-out for lady visitors, profanely called lionesses, all the way up the street.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.