dame

noun

1. (British)Usually capitalized as Dame: a title equivalent to Sir for a female knight.

   “Dame Edith Sitwell”

   “The cover of the modern cd, issued by EMI Classics with Dame Janet Baker and Sir John Barbirolli in 1965, carries a portrait of Dame Janet wearing a long coral necklace in reference to the song 'Where the Corals lie' to words by Richard Garnett (1835–1906).”

2. (British)A matron at a school, especially Eton College.

   “Even though the dames’ houses were being gradually phased out at Eton, [John Henry] Newman was enthusiastic about the arrangement since it met one of the promoters’ key demands; besides, he had experienced something similar as a boy at Ealing School, where the boarding houses were also under the jurisdiction of dames. The Ealing dames ensured that boys were properly dressed and cared for them when sick, and they also ran the tuck shops.”

   “As he [Fréderic Guyaz] worked for Topham [Beauclerk] while he was at Eton, it is likely that Topham was a day-boarder there, living at home in Windsor. His Eton "dame" was Mrs. Bland; day-boarders were allocated to a dame at whose house they took their meals.”

3. (British)In traditional pantomime: a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag.

   “[page 73, column 2] Mother Goose was produced on the 29th of December; Simmons playing the Old Dame; […] [page 74, column 1] Bugle condemns her to the ducking-stool, a sentence opposed by Colin, who espouses the cause of the Old Dame, who, escaping from her persecutors, puts an end to the wedding festivities by raising the ghost of the Squire's first wife.”

   “The Dame in a Panto is generally a large, gregarious and out-going man who plays the part of a large, gregarious and out-going woman. […] Every successful actor who plays the part of Dame in Panto knows that the secret of his success is that it should be obvious that it is a man playing a part, for this is not a Drag act; the intention is not to be as womanly as possible, but always to be 'a feller in a frock'. […] Oh how everyone loves the Panto Dame for she is Panto.”

4. (US, dated, informal)A woman.

   “I can see that would be the kind of a chap that the dames would stand for everlastingly.”

   “There is nothin' like a dame / Nothin' in the world. / There is nothin' you can name / That is anythin' like a dame.”

5. (archaic)A lady, a woman.

   “Now, thou, deare dame, that workſte theſe ſweete effectes in mee, / Vouchsafe my zeale, that onely ſeeke to ſerve and honour thee.”

   “[T]hough they were first-form'd dames of Earth, / And in whose sparcklinge and refulgent eyes / The glorious sonne did still delight to rise; […]”

   “And do you think my Dame Dobſon don't know a little better than you? She tells you, you need ſay no more, and 'tis an affront to her Art not to believe her; and I'le not ſee my Dame affronted.”

   “[H]e pointed his staff at a female figure on the path, in whom goodman Brown recognized a very pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism, in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser, jointly with the minister and deacon Gookin.”

   “The poetical relation between the pagan warrior and his celestial bride changed, in course of time, to that between the Christian knight and his ladye-bright, who also was not always an earthly dame, but the holy Virgin or some saint.”

6. The hereditary feudal ruler (seigneur) of Sark, when the title is held by a woman in her own right.
7. (slang)A queen.
8. (British)The titular prefix given to a female knight

verb

1. To make a dame.

   “The French call simply Pawn, “la Dame qui n’est point Damée, et l’on n’appelle Dame proprement dite, que le Pion qui est Damé, et couvert d’un autre Pion,” which means “the Draught or Pawn which is not damed, and which is only termed Dame or Queen, when the Pawn which is damed, is covered with another Pawn.””

   “Jonathan’s first edition of Calais was signed by Dame Agatha [Christie]. Not as Dame Agatha, just plain Agatha. She got Damed later.”

   “[…]Joanna Lumley, both pros in their respective fields, and both Brits in their respective hearts, are now both newly knighted (damed, in Lumley’s case) by England’s Queen Lizzy.”

   “Edna [Everage] was damed spontaneously, on camera, by the Socialist Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam.”

   “Peter Bradley, deputy leader of the Labour group, scoffed that she [Shirley Porter] had been ‘Damed with faint praise’ and further observed that every pantomime needs a Dame.”