dame-school

American  

[deym-skool] / ˈdeɪmˌskul /

noun

1. a school in which the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught to neighborhood children by a woman in her own home.

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dame school British  

noun

1. (formerly) a small school, often in a village, usually run by an elderly woman in her own home to teach young children to read and write

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Etymology

Origin of dame-school

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

The dame-school, which was about a mile from the village, was a long, low house with a thatched roof.

From Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) Classic Tales and Old-Fashioned Stories by Mabie, Hamilton Wright

He was sent early to the usual dame-school, and developed an insatiable appetite for such stories and ballads as were current among the neighbours.

From English Men of Letters: Crabbe by Ainger, Alfred

Geology has initiated us into the secularity of nature, and taught us to disuse our dame-school measures, and exchange our Mosaic and Ptolemaic schemes for her large style.

From Essays — Second Series by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

He it was to whom my education, and Ned Faringfield's, was entrusted, while the girls and little Tom still strove with the rudiments in the dame-school.

From Philip Winwood A Sketch of the Domestic History of an American Captain in the War of Independence; Embracing Events that Occurred between and during the Years 1763 and 1786, in New York and London: written by His Enemy in War, Herbert Russell, Lieutenant in the Loyalist Forces. by Stephens, Robert Neilson

Calchas, for his part, kept a dame-school in this piece, which for the rest was treated with a singular freedom.

From The Forest Lovers by Hewlett, Maurice Henry