dame-school

[ deym-skool ]

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.

dame school

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of dame-school¹

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

In the porch a white-headed woman, in a gold-edged blue kerchief and poppy-red skirt, was holding a dame-school.

From Project Gutenberg

In France from a very remote period the dame-school appears to have existed in some measure and form, for a fourteenth-century sculpture, already mentioned in the remarks on scholastic discipline, depicts an establishment of this kind—a petty school for boys kept by a woman.

From Project Gutenberg

"To be sure they are, Amy," said Frank, who had great notions of having every one belonging to him very refined and superior; "I hope you never intend to do such things, or you had better set up a dame-school at once."

From Project Gutenberg

As Susan had now settled all her business, she thought she could have time to go down to the meadow by the river-side to see her favourite; but just as she had tied on her straw hat the village clock struck four, and this was the hour at which she always went to fetch her little brothers home from a dame-school near the village.

From Project Gutenberg

The dame-school, which was about a mile from the hamlet, was not a showy edifice: but it was reverenced as much by the young race of village scholars as if it had been the most stately mansion in the land; it was a low-roofed, long, thatched tenement, sheltered by a few reverend oaks, under which many generations of hopeful children had gambolled in their turn.

From Project Gutenberg