lady
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈleɪdi/
ipa: [ˈleɪ.ɾi]
rhymes: -eɪdi
Forms: form: ladies
Etymology: From Middle English lady, laddy, lafdi, lavedi, from Old English hlǣfdīġe (“mistress of a household, wife of a lord, lady”, literally “bread-kneader”), from hlāf (“bread, loaf”) + dīġe (“kneader”), related to Old English dǣġe (“maker of dough”) (whence dey (“dairymaid”)). Compare also lord. More at loaf, dairy, dough. Unrelated to lad.
Senses: glosses: The mistress of a household.
examples: text: "I would like the dining room to be fully set by tonight; would you do so?" "Yes, my lady."
text: ‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”.[…]’.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
glosses: A woman of breeding or higher class, a woman of authority.
examples: text: Of all theſe bounds euen from this Line, to this, / With ſhadowie Forreſts, and with Champains rich’d / With plenteous Riuers, and wide-ſkirted Meades / We make thee Lady.
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 283, column 2:
text: ’T was the proudest hall in the North Countree,
 And never its gates might opened be,
 Save to lord or lady of high decree[…]
ref: 1848, James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfaul, 6th edition, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, published 1858:
glosses: The feminine of lord.
glosses: A title for someone married to a lord or gentleman.
glosses: A title that can be used instead of the formal terms of marchioness, countess, viscountess, or baroness.
examples: text: Please direct this lady to the soft furnishings department.
glosses: A woman: an adult female human.
raw_tags: used by children
examples: text: Ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to be here today. Follow me, ladies!
text: The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58:
glosses: A polite reference or form of address to women.
examples: text: Hey, lady, move your car!
text: Hey, ladies, how are you doing?
glosses: Used to address a female.
examples: text: It is my Lady, O it is my Loue, O that ſhe knew ſhe were,
 She ſpeakes, yet ſhe ſayes nothing, what of that?
ref: c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 59, column 2:
text: But nothing could now exceed my confusion upon seeing the gentleman and his lady enter
ref: 1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A wife or girlfriend; a sweetheart.
examples: text: The ſoldier here his waſted ſtore ſupplies,
 And takes new valor from the Ladies’ eyes.
ref: 1666, Edmund Waller, “Instructions to a Painter”, in The Works of Edmund Walker, Dublin: W. G. Jones, published 1768, page 154:
glosses: A woman to whom the particular homage of a knight was paid; a woman to whom one is devoted or bound.
glosses: A queen (the playing card).
examples: text: A lady doctor.
text: The recent disclosures caused one headmistress of a city college to arrange for sex instructions to be given by a lady doctor to various forms.
ref: 1964, James Holledge, Sex and the Australian Teenager, Melbounre: Horwitz Publications, page 15:
glosses: Who is a woman.
raw_tags: with a professional title
topics: Wicca
lifestyle
religion
glosses: Alternative form of Lady.
glosses: gastric mill, the triturating apparatus in the stomach of a lobster, consisting of calcareous plates; so called from a fancied resemblance to a seated female figure.
glosses: A five-pound note. (Rhyming slang, Lady Godiva for fiver.)
glosses: A woman’s breast.
topics: board-games
chess
games
glosses: A queen.
Derived terms: word: American painted lady
word: Asian lady beetle
word: bag lady
word: Bankside lady
word: barlady
word: bearded lady
word: belady
word: black lady
word: byrlady
word: cat lady
word: chairlady
word: charlady
word: cleaning lady
word: court lady
word: Cumberlady
word: dinner lady
word: dragon lady
word: faint heart never won fair lady
word: fat lady
word: find the lady
word: first lady
word: follow the lady
word: forelady
word: garbage lady
word: gaydy
word: gay lady
word: genteel lady
word: gray lady
word: iron lady
word: it ain't over till the fat lady sings
word: it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings
word: it ain't over until the fat lady sings
word: it isn't over till the fat lady sings
word: it isn't over 'til the fat lady sings
word: it isn't over until the fat lady sings
word: Joan's as good as my lady in the dark
word: ladies' aid society
word: ladies and gentlemen
word: ladies and gents
word: ladies and germs
word: ladies' auxiliary
word: ladies' cloakroom
word: ladies' companion
word: ladies' eardrops
word: ladies' fever
word: ladies' fingers
word: ladies first
word: ladies' lounge
word: ladies man
word: ladies' man
word: ladies' night
word: ladies' rackets
word: ladies' special
word: ladies' tresses
word: ladify
word: ladily
word: ladiness
word: lady abbess
word: Lady altar
word: ladybeetle
word: lady beetle
word: lady bird
word: lady-bird
word: ladybird
word: ladybits
word: ladyboner
word: lady-boner
word: lady boner
word: Lady Bountifel
word: lady boy
word: ladyboy
word: ladybro
word: lady bug
word: lady-bug
word: ladybug
word: Lady Campbell
word: ladycation
word: lady chapel
word: ladyclock
word: lady crab
word: Lady Day
word: lady fern
word: lady-fern
word: ladyfinger
word: ladyfish
word: lady-fly
word: ladyfolk
word: ladyfolks
word: lady friend
word: ladyfy
word: lady garden
word: Lady Godiva
word: ladyhood
word: lady in waiting
word: lady-in-waiting
word: ladyish
word: ladyism
word: lady killer
word: lady-killer
word: ladykiller
word: lady-killing
word: ladykilling
word: ladykin
word: ladykind
word: ladyless
word: ladylike
word: ladyling
word: lady love
word: ladylove
word: lady luck
word: lady lumps
word: ladylumps
word: Lady Macbeth strategy
word: ladymag
word: Lady McLeod
word: lady of leisure
word: lady of light virtue
word: lady of pleasure
word: lady of the evening
word: lady of the house
word: lady of the night
word: lady or tiger
word: lady palm
word: lady paramount
word: ladyparts
word: lady parts
word: ladyporn
word: Lady Presidentress
word: lady's bedstraw
word: lady's eardrop
word: lady's finger
word: ladyship
word: lady's laces
word: lady slipper
word: ladyslipper
word: lady's maid
word: lady's man
word: lady's mantle
word: lady smock
word: lady's slipper
word: lady's thistle
word: lady's thumb
word: ladystick
word: ladystuff
word: lady who lunches
word: landlady
word: leading lady
word: little lady
word: lollipop lady
word: lords and ladies
word: lunch lady
word: lunch-lady
word: lunchlady
word: mail lady
word: May-lady
word: merlady
word: methinks the lady doth protest too much
word: m'lady
word: malady
word: milady
word: naked lady
word: newslady
word: northern lady fern
word: no way to treat a lady
word: office lady
word: old lady
word: one fat lady
word: Our Lady
word: Our Lady of Dolors
word: Our Lady of the Seven Dolors
word: Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows
word: overlady
word: painted lady
word: Pink Lady
word: pink lady
word: pizza lady
word: post lady
word: Quaker ladies
word: ragged lady
word: saleslady
word: school dinner lady
word: school-dinner lady
word: second lady
word: shoplady
word: shopping-bag lady
word: silver-lady
word: snowlady
word: sporting lady
word: tea lady
word: the First Lady
word: the lady doth protest too much
word: theydy
word: time lady
word: translady
word: tuck shop lady arm
word: Tupperware lady
word: two fat ladies
word: walking lady
word: warlady
word: white lady
word: white lady tears
word: young lady
english: lady
translation: lady
urls: https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Category:English+lemmas&from=lady#mw-pages
word: English terms starting with
Related terms: fakaleitī
Lady