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n. 1. A woman who has a continuing sexual relationship with a man who is married to someone else. 2. A woman in a position of authority, control, or ownership, as the head of a household: "Thirteen years had seen her mistress of Kellynch Hall" (Jane Austen). 3. a. A woman who owns or keeps an animal: a cat sitting in its mistress's lap. b. A woman who owns a slave. 4. A woman with ultimate control over something: the mistress of her own mind. 5. a. A nation or country that has supremacy over others: Great Britain, once the mistress of the seas. b. Something personified as female that directs or reigns: "my mistress ... the open road" (Robert Louis Stevenson). 6. A woman who has mastered a skill or branch of learning: a mistress of the culinary art. 7. Mistress Used formerly as a courtesy title when speaking to or of a woman. 8. Chiefly British A woman schoolteacher. [Middle English maistresse, from Old French, feminine of maistre, master, from Latin magister; see MASTER.] |
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