toadess

English

Etymology

From toad +‎ -ess.

Noun

toadess (plural toadesses)

1. (rare) A female toad.
   • 1854, Benj[amin] F[ranklin] Taylor, “Digging for a Subject”, in January and June: Being Out-Door Thinkings, and Fire-Side Musings. […], New York, N.Y.: Samuel Hueston, […], →OCLC, pages 50–51:

     Taking a hoe this morning, (could find no spade but the ace,) I exhumed a toadess, perhaps a widow, living all by herself, in underground lodgings, as widows have done, and will do, again and again, till there is no such thing as widowdom in the world.

   • 1858 October 23, Ecuyer Tranchant [pseudonym], “The Democrat of the Dinner Table”, in Boston Evening Transcript, volume XXIX, number 8740, Boston, Mass., supplement, column 4:

     The toad likes cool, moist earth, neither muddy nor dusty, and just after a shower, when the roads are just properly moistened, the little toads and toadesses go forth to promenade and enlarge their acquaintance with the world beyond the cabbage-leaf of their nativity.

   • 1868 July 24, Josh Billings [pseudonym; Henry Wheeler Shaw], “The Josh Billings Papers. Josh Does Up his Back Correspondence.”, in The Missouri Democrat, volume 16, number 289, St. Louis, Mo., page [3], column 4:

     They [toads] lead a very retired and pensive life during the day, behind stun walls, but when twilight begins tew dress for the night, then the toads and toadesses begin to reconnoiter round.

   • 1899 July 27, H. M. Doak, “Doak on Frog and Toad Music”, in The Nashville American, volume XXIII, number 8263, Nashville, Tenn., page 4, column 6:

     I do know that all the respectable toads and toadesses of my acquaintance always went down in family parties into the water and there brought forth a respectable and legitimate family of tadpoles.

   • 1915, M. V. Srinivasa Aiyangar, An Open Letter to Mrs. Annie Besant: Being a Reply to Her Attacks on Hinduism, Madras: M. C. Narasimhacharya, →OCLC, page 57:

     “A toad’s highest idea of beauty is a toadess;” says another [proverb].

   • 1969, Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, “The Picnic”, in The Centre of the Universe is 18 Baedekerstrasse, London: Hamish Hamilton, published 1985, →ISBN, page 52:

     [T]hey […] stuffed their faces into the grass, shaking uncontrollably, silently. What could they see? […] Some animal? ‘And from his queer abode came forth giant toad, a toadess in a bodice.’

   • 1989 February 2, Rick Cairns, “The Other Side: Basic Qualities of Relationsips^[sic]”, in The Seahawk, volume 42, Wilmington, N.C.: University of North Carolina at Wilmington, page 4, column 5:

     As the saying goes, “I’ve kissed many toadesses in my time, but I finally found a princess.”

   • 1996 May 18–24, “Soulmates”, in The Guide (The Guardian), London, page 57, column 3:

     3 hideous L[on]d[o]n toadesses looking for 3 dashing princes for fun, wine & magik.

   • 2014 December, Gwynneth Green, “Rose & the Toad”, in Unplugged, Shelbyville, Ky.: Wasteland Press, →ISBN, page 59:

     i am not a prince in disguise / i’m merely a toad / looking for a toadess / to undress // rose / taking kindly to a croaking toad / decided / to assist in his search / for an undressed frog