peeress
English
Etymology
Noun
peeress (plural peeresses)
- A noblewoman married to a peer.
- 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
- But there were more than a score of peers there beside, with their peeresses in tall feathers, diamonds, and monstrous hoops.
- A woman holding a noble title in her own right.
- 1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Noble Bachelor”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes[1], HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2011:
- … it is obvious that the Californian heiress is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a British peeress.