duenna
Americannoun
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(in Spain and Portugal) an older woman serving as escort or chaperon of a young lady.
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a governess.
noun
Other Word Forms
- duennaship noun
Etymology
Origin of duenna
First recorded in 1660–70; from older Spanish duenna (modern Spanish dueña ), from Latin domina, feminine of dominus “lord, master”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Georgian discipline . . . a sketch of Sheridan’s duenna, or chaperone The early life of 18th-century playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan sounds like the stuff of .
From The Guardian • Sep. 29, 2010
The show had all the virtues of the duenna -care, good taste, restraint and fondness for her charges -but also the one vice: it was often pretty dull.
From Time Magazine Archive
Startled first-nighters saw the heroine clad as half nun and half Easter lily, her duenna completely faceless, another nun headless and one tavern character with two heads.
From Time Magazine Archive
Still the reader finds Melville awkward and even embarrassed in the presence of poetry, as if poetry were attended by a duenna and not a muse.
From Time Magazine Archive
In his perplexity he resolved to enlist the good graces of her duenna, who undertook to plead his cause with her young mistress.
From Legends & Romances of Spain by Spence, Lewis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
