ABBESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does abbess mean? 

• ABBESS (noun)
  The noun ABBESS has 1 sense:

1. the superior of a group of nuns

  Familiarity information: ABBESS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ABBESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The superior of a group of nuns

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

abbess; mother superior; prioress

Hypernyms ("abbess" is a kind of...):

superior (the head of a religious community)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "abbess"):

mother (a term of address for a mother superior)

Instance hyponyms:

Bride; Bridget; Brigid; Saint Bride; Saint Bridget; Saint Brigid; St. Bride; St. Bridget; St. Brigid (Irish abbess; a patron saint of Ireland (453-523))

Heloise (student and mistress and wife of Abelard (circa 1098-1164))

Derivation:

abbatial (of or having to do with or belonging to an abbey or abbot, or abbess)

 Context examples 

A sorry sight this for the gaunt abbess, an ill lesson too for the stainless two-and-twenty who have ever been taught that the way of nature is the way of sin.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And now, when all was settled, and when abbess and lady superior had had their will, it was but fitting that some pomp and show should mark the glad occasion.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her foot is on the very lintel of the church, and yet he bars the way—and she, she thinks no more of the wise words and holy rede of the lady abbess, but she hath given a sobbing cry and hath fallen forward with his arms around her drooping body and her wet cheek upon his breast.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then, with four attendants, came the novice, her drooping head wreathed with white blossoms, and, behind, the abbess and her council of older nuns, who were already counting in their minds whether their own bailiff could manage the farms of Twynham, or whether a reeve would be needed beneath him, to draw the utmost from these new possessions which this young novice was about to bring them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Long and earnest had been the talks of the gaunt lady abbess, in which she had conjured the young novice to turn forever from the world, and to rest her bruised heart under the broad and peaceful shelter of the church.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)