dame

noun dames

1. UK Usually capitalized as Dame: a title equivalent to Sir for a female knight. Dame Edith Sitwell
2. UK A matron at a school, especially Eton College. Even though the dames’ houses were being gradually phased out at Eton, [John Henry] Newman was enthusiastic about the arrangement since it met one of the promoters’ key demands; besides, he had experienced something similar as a boy at Ealing School, where the boarding houses were also under the jur
3. UK In traditional pantomime: a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag. [page 73, column 2] Mother Goose was produced on the 29th of December; Simmons playing the Old Dame; […] [page 74, column 1] Bugle condemns her to the ducking-stool, a sentence opposed by Colin, who espouses the cause of the Old Dame, who, escaping from her persecutors, puts an end to the wedding fe
4. US, dated, informal A woman. I can see that would be the kind of a chap that the dames would stand for everlastingly.
5. archaic A lady, a woman. Now, thou, deare dame, that workſte theſe ſweete effectes in mee, / Vouchsafe my zeale, that onely ſeeke to ſerve and honour thee.
6. The hereditary feudal ruler (seigneur) of Sark, when the title is held by a woman in her own right.
7. slang A queen.

Similar: woman

verb dames · daming · damed

1. To make a dame. The French call simply Pawn, “la Dame qui n’est point Damée, et l’on n’appelle Dame proprement dite, que le Pion qui est Damé, et couvert d’un autre Pion,” which means “the Draught or Pawn which is not damed, and which is only termed Dame or Queen, when the Pawn which is damed, is covered with anoth

noun Dames

1. UK The titular prefix given to a female knight