I. ˈlādē, -di noun
( -es )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English lady, lavedi, lafdi, from Old English hlǣfdīge, from hlāf bread + -dīge (from root of a prehistoric verb meaning to knead); akin to Old English dǣge maid, kneader of bread — more at loaf , dairy
1. obsolete : a mistress of servants : a woman who looks after the domestic affairs of a family : female head of a household
2.
a. : a woman having proprietary rights, rule, or authority : a woman to whom obedience or homage is owed as a ruler or feudal superior — usually used chiefly in the phrase lady of the manor ; compare lord 1
b.
(1) : a woman receiving the particular homage of a knight
(2) : a woman who is the object of a lover's devotion : ladylove , mistress , sweetheart
3.
a. : a woman of good family or of a superior social position
inclined to remind you that she was a lady by birth — W.S.Maugham
begins as a narrative with a warm and vigorous picture of the decline of the lady … into the woman — H.S.Canby
the airs of a lady
once a lady could not be a stenographer or a shopgirl — Katharine F. Gerould
— compare gentleman 1b; used also of a woman in a courteous mode of reference
show this lady to a seat
the ladies' singles championship
or usually in the plural of address
that will be all, ladies
ladies and gentlemen
b. : a woman of refinement and gentle manners : a woman whose conduct conforms to a certain standard of propriety or correct behavior : well-bred woman
with a lady's respect for tranquillity she forbore to discuss these troubles — Frances G. Patton
no woman with a bosom could be quite a lady in his eyes — Hugh MacLennan
a lady … quiet, reserved, gracious, continent … gentle, and a woman — W.D.Steele
— compare gentleman 1c
c. : a woman irrespective of social status or personal qualities : female
a lady doctor
a char lady
a two-headed boy and a bearded lady
lady novelists
the iceman, the blackberry lady , and the poor blind man with the brooms — Eudora Welty
noticed the cold eye of the lady behind the bar — Margery Allingham
as fit as a lady sharpshooter — Ethel Merman
4. : wife
the president and his lady
his daughter was now a general's lady — John De Meyer
fashionable doctors and their ladies — Gene Baro
5. — used as a title prefixed to the names of various supernatural beings and personified abstractions
Lady Venus
Lady Luck
— compare dame 1c
6.
a. : any of various titled women in Great Britain — used as a courtesy title for the daughter of a duke, marquess, or earl
Lady Philippa Stewart, daughter of the fourteenth Duke of Norfolk
and for the wife of a younger son of a duke or marquess
Lady Randolph Churchill, wife of a younger son of the Duke of Marlborough
and as a mode of reference for a marchioness, countess, viscountess, or baroness
the Marchioness of Lothian, addressed as Lady Lothian
and for the wife of a baronet or knight
Sir William and Lady Craigie
b. : a female member of certain orders of knighthood or chivalry
Her Majesty is Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter — Burke's Peerage
appointed by Pope Pius as a lady of the grand cross of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre — Springfield (Massachusetts) Union
— compare dame 1g
7.
a. obsolete : the queen in a set of chess men
b. slang : a queen in a deck of playing cards
8.
[so called from the fancied resemblance to the outline of a seated woman's figure]
: the triturating apparatus in the stomach of a lobster
9. : a gunner's mate in charge of the lady's hole on a man-of-war
10.
a. : a female animal
one was a lady , her swimmerets … covered with black eggs — Robert Hunter
a lady goat
the male trout are handsome, the lady trout pretty and available — Ford Times
b. : a female harlequin duck — compare lord-and-lady
11. ladies plural but singular in construction , chiefly Britain : ladies' room
slipped into the ladies to powder her nose
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-es )
transitive verb
obsolete : to make a lady of or to make ladylike
intransitive verb
: to play the lady — used with it
ladying it over her former friends