PEERESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does peeress mean? 

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

1. a woman of the peerage in Britain

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• PEERESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A woman of the peerage in Britain

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Lady; noblewoman; peeress

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

female aristocrat (a woman who is an aristocrat)

Domain region:

Britain; Great Britain; U.K.; UK; United Kingdom; United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; 'Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom)

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

baroness (a noblewoman who holds the rank of baron or who is the wife or widow of a baron)

countess (female equivalent of a count or earl)

duchess (the wife of a duke or a woman holding ducal title in her own right)

lady-in-waiting (a lady appointed to attend to a queen or princess)

marchioness; marquise (a noblewoman ranking below a duchess and above a countess)

Milady (an English noblewoman)

Instance hyponyms:

Borgia; Duchess of Ferrara; Lucrezia Borgia (Italian noblewoman and patron of the arts (1480-1519))

Godiva; Lady Godiva (according to legend she rode naked through Coventry in order to persuade her husband not to tax the townspeople so heavily; the only person to look at her as she rode by was a man named Tom and Peeping Tom has become a synonym for voyeur (circa 1040-1080))

Amy Lyon; Hamilton; Lady Emma Hamilton (English beauty who was the mistress of Admiral Nelson (1765-1815))

Holonyms ("peeress" is a member of...):

baronage; peerage (the peers of a kingdom considered as a group)

 Context examples 

I smiled as I unfolded it, and devised how I would tease you about your aristocratic tastes, and your efforts to masque your plebeian bride in the attributes of a peeress.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a British peeress.’

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)