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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Mistress \Mis"tress\, noun [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 woman having an ongoing usually exclusive sexual relationship with a man, who may provide her with financial support in return; a concubine; a loose woman with whom one consorts habitually; as, both his wife and his mistress attended his funeral. --Spectator. [1913 Webster +PJC]
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 A title of courtesy formerly prefixed to the name of a woman, married or unmarried, but now superseded by the contracted forms, Mrs., for a married, and Miss, for an unmarried, woman.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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Mistress \Mis"tress\, verb (used without an object) To wait upon a mistress; to be courting. [Obs.] --Donne.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
mistress
noun
1: an adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man [syn: {kept woman}, {fancy woman}]
2: a woman schoolteacher (especially one regarded as strict) [syn: {schoolmarm}, {schoolma'am}, {schoolmistress}]
3: a woman master who directs the work of others
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
20 Moby Thesaurus words for "Mistress": Frau, Fraulein, Miss, Mlle, Mme, Mmes, dame, dona, donna, lady, madam, madame, mademoiselle, mem-sahib, mesdames, senhora, senhorita, signora, signorina, vrouw
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
69 Moby Thesaurus words for "mistress": Dulcinea, abbess, beneficiary, best girl, cestui, cestui que trust, cestui que use, chatelaine, concubine, dame, deedholder, dowager, doxy, dream girl, duenna, educatress, feoffee, feudatory, first lady, gill, girl, girl friend, goodwife, governess, great lady, headmistress, homemaker, householder, housewife, inamorata, instructress, jill, jo, kept mistress, kept woman, lady, lady love, laird, landlady, landlord, lass, lassie, lord, lover, madam, master, matriarch, matron, mesne, mesne lord, mother superior, odalisque, old lady, owner, paramour, playmate, proprietary, proprietor, proprietress, proprietrix, rentier, schooldame, schoolmarm, schoolmistress, squire, titleholder, tutoress, unofficial wife, woman
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