female impersonator

English

Noun

female impersonator (plural female impersonators)

1. (performing arts) A male entertainer who performs cross-dressed as a woman.
   • 1908, O. Henry, "The Hand That Riles The World" in The Gentle Grafter:

     "About the only job left that a woman can beat a man in is female impersonator in vaudeville."

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, Episode 15:

     It was Gerald converted me to be a true corsetlover when I was female impersonator in the High School play Vice Versa.

   • 2009 June 3, William Grimes, "Danny La Rue, Female Impersonator, Dies at 81," New York Times (retrieved 13 Oct 2015):

     Danny La Rue, a female impersonator who became one of the highest-paid performers on the British stage by bringing sophistication and spectacle to a form of entertainment previously regarded as dubious, died at his home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on Sunday.

Synonyms

• drag queen

Related terms

• female impersonation

See also

• Thesaurus:transvestite

Further reading

• “female impersonator”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.