schoolmistress

[ skool-mis-tris ]

noun

1. a woman who presides over or teaches in a school.

schoolmistress

/ ˈskuːlˌmɪstrɪs /

noun

1. a woman who teaches in or runs a school

Gender Note

See -ess.

Derived Forms

• ˈschoolˌmistressy, adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of schoolmistress¹

First recorded in 1490–1500; school ¹ + mistress

Example Sentences

“I didn’t want her to look like a grump schoolmistress,” Atwood said.

From Los Angeles Times

Dynamic, too, was Nicole Car as the widowed schoolmistress with hopeless belief in Grimes’s salvation.

From New York Times

"She was rather like a schoolmistress, actually because, we were young girls - 17, 18... You know, if your Millennium Falcons weren't touching, 'Come on girls, what's going off here? We've got to get this out!'"

From BBC

There’s the occasional sharp moment to remind us of the character’s inner fires, but mostly she plays it cool and oddly small-scale, like an overly qualified schoolmistress who happens to find herself ruling an empire.

From New York Times

Trump has grown frustrated by the prime minister’s ‘schoolmistress’ manner.

From The Guardian