conspiratrix

English

Noun

conspiratrix (plural conspiratrices)

1. A female conspirator.

   Synonym: conspiratress

   • 1811, Robert Kerr, “Transactions in Scotland, from the Retreat of Robert I. to Rachrin, in Winter 1306, to his Return in Spring 1307”, in History of Scotland During the Reign of Robert I. Sirnamed the Bruce, volume I, Edinburgh: […] William Creech, A[rchibald] Constable & Co. W[illiam] Blackwood, […], page 245:

     “That most impious conspiratrix, the countess of Buchan [Isabella MacDuff] being likewise apprehended, the king commanded that, since she had not used the sword, her life should be spared; but, in regard of her illegal conspiracy, she should be confined in a building constructed of stone and iron, […]”

   • 1846 November 14, “News of the Week”, in The Spectator. A Weekly Journal of News, Politics, Literature, and Science., volume XIX, number 959, London: […] Joseph Clayton, […], page 1081, column 2:

     The soldier of fortune, with whom Queen Christina, when they were both in exile, conspired to overturn the comparatively quiet and decorous rule of [Baldomero] Espartero’s Regency, has since that undergone vicissitudes that illustrate the condition of his country: his arbitrary insolence made his presence intolerable; he was overreached by the superior finesse of the intrigante, and driven from the kingdom; he has returned to be spectator of a grand intrigue, which triumphed, but now serves him as a pretext for crying down his fellow-conspiratrix; and it is his turn to try the trick of banishing an inconvenient accomplice.

   • 1856, [Emma Robinson], “Ellen Sullivan”, in The City Banker; or, Love and Money, London: Charles J[oseph] Skeet, […], page 283:

     “I should have murdered him, or he would have murdered me, by this time! It is impossible to say how I hate the villain!” returned Lady Mulgrave, with an energy that bore testimony to the sincerity of her expression. / “Well, I know of a capital revenge we could take on him,” said the conspiratrix.

   • 1857, George W[illiam] M[acArthur] Reynolds, “The Synod”, in Margaret; or, The Discarded Queen, London: John Dicks, […], published [1870?], →OCLC, page 328, column 2:

     “We will not summon her,” interposed the Prior of St. John at Dalkeith: “we all hold her to be unworthy of credence—a false speaker—an unmaidenly person—a convicted conspiratrix⸺”

   • 1863, W[illiam] D[enison] B[ickham], “The “Grapevine” Telegraph—A Southern Institution—Fabrication of False Intelligence—Southern Ladies’ Aid Society—Its Policy—Social Life in Nashville—[…]”, in Rosecrans’ Campaign with Fourteenth Army Corps, or the Army of the Cumberland: […], Cincinnati, Oh.: Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co., […], pages 113–114:

     Women took the lead. They were best calculated to manage the Yankees. They were accomplished and beautiful. The Yankees were courteous and susceptible to women, but rough-handed with masculine rebels. This was the view the Southern Ladies’ Aid Society took of it. They condemned discourtesy to the federals. It was not good policy—certainly not lady-like. They “hated the Yankees,” but it was wise to dissemble. These amiable conspiratrices were very adroit, and plied their cunning arts seductively.

   • 1866 March 1, George Meredith, “Vittoria”, in George Henry Lewes, editor, The Fortnightly Review, volume IV, number XX, London: Chapman and Hall, […], chapter X (The Pope’s Mouth), page 174:

     “Look at her; think of her, with her pure dream of Italy and her noble devotion. And you permit a doubt to be cast on her!” / “Now, is it not true that you have an idea of the country not being worthy of her?” said Agostino, slyly. “The chief, I fancy, did not take certain facts into his calculation when he pleaded that the conspiratrix was the sum and completion of the conspirator. […]”

   • 1868, [Emma Robinson], “The Climax of the Thé Dansant”, in The Matrimonial Vanity Fair, volume II, London: Charles J[oseph] Skeet, […], page 170:

     “No, dear, I think that was Hamlet—he is always dressed in black, with bugles, and a high feathered cap to make him look tall. But he wasn’t half so tall as Laërtes at the theatre, after all!” the other sapient young conspiratrix replied.

   • 1881 April 1, “Occasional Notes”, in The York Herald, number 7525, York, Yorkshire, page 5, column 2:

     A “society” star, highly educated, the daughter of a former provincial Governor, and the niece of an officer of high rank in the Russian army—what has brought [Sophia] Perofskaja to be not merely a conspiratrix, but almost the Head-centre of Nihilism?

   • 1885, “Notice of a Manuscript of the Latter Part of the Fourteenth Century, Entitled Passio Scotorum Perjuratorum. By the Most Hon. the Marquess of Bute, K.T., F.S.A. Scot.”, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, volume XIX, Edinburgh: […] [F]or the Society by Neill and Company, page 175:

     And there is taken also that wicked conspiratrix, the Countess of Buchan [Isabella MacDuff], and when the king had taken council concerning her, he saith: Because she hath not smitten with the sword, she shall not perish with the sword. But on account of the unlawful crowning which she made, let her be kept most fastly in an iron crown, made after the fashion of a little house, […]

     [original: Capitur autem et ilia impia conjuratrix, Comitissa de Bowan, de qua consultus Rex ait, Quia gladio non percussit, gladio non peribit. Sed propter coronacionem illicitam quam fecit, in corona ferrea ad modum domuncule fabricata firmissime obstruatur, […]]

   • 1936, V[ictoria] Sackville-West, “The Trial (1)”, in Saint Joan of Arc: […], London: Cobden-Sanderson, pages 304–305:

     The jurists of the inquisition and of the University of Paris certainly did their powers of invective justice on this occasion: “That the woman commonly named Jeanne la Pucelle [i.e., Joan of Arc] . . . shall be denounced and declared as a sorceress, diviner, pseudo-prophetess, invoker of evil spirits, conspiratrix, superstitious, implicated in and given to the practice of magic, wrong-headed as to our Catholic faith, schismatic as to the article Unam Sanctum, etc., […]”

   • 1936 January 19, Rupert Hughes, ““Section 213””, in This Week (The Minneapolis Journal), Minneapolis, Minn., page 11, column 2:

     Her womanly intuition and certain over-statements and reticences in Neal’s story of his rescue from drowning convinced her that he was in love with that anonymous creature who had saved him, that conspiratrix against the peace of her home.