English▸ noun
1 a woman (used as a polite or old-fashioned form of reference):
I spoke to the lady at the travel agency
[as modifier] a lady doctor.
▪ mainly North American an informal, often brusque, form of address to a woman:
I'm sorry, lady, but you have the wrong number.
2 a woman of superior social position, especially one of noble birth:
lords and ladies and royalty were once entertained at the house.
▪ a courteous, decorous, or genteel woman:
his wife was a real lady, with such nice manners.
▪ (Lady) (in the UK) a title used by peeresses, female relatives of peers, the wives and widows of knights, etc.:
Lady Caroline Lamb.
– PHRASES
it isn't over till the fat lady sings
used to convey that there is still time for a situation to change.
women with both the means and the free time to meet each other socially for lunch in expensive restaurants:
/
a woman who engages in ostentatious acts of charity, more to impress others than out of a sense of concern for those in need.
chance personified as a controlling power in human affairs:/ British informal
a haughty or pretentious woman (often as a mocking form of address):
a polite form of address to certain noblewomen:
a woman at the head of a household:
it isn't over till the fat lady sings
used to convey that there is still time for a situation to change.
[by association with the final aria in tragic opera.]
ladies who lunch informal, often derogatory women with both the means and the free time to meet each other socially for lunch in expensive restaurants:
these forgotten types, the ladies who lunch and underwrite foundling hospitals.
Lady Bountiful /ˌlādē ˈbountiˌfo͝ol, ˌleɪdi ˈbaʊntɪˌfʊl a woman who engages in ostentatious acts of charity, more to impress others than out of a sense of concern for those in need.
[early 19th century : from the name of a character in Farquhar's The Beaux' Stratagem (1707).]
Lady Luck chance personified as a controlling power in human affairs:
it seemed Lady Luck was still smiling on them.
Lady Muck /ˌlādē ˈmək, ˌleɪdi ˈmək a haughty or pretentious woman (often as a mocking form of address):
it's that woman, Lady Muck herself—who does she think she is?
My Lady a polite form of address to certain noblewomen:
“You look truly charming, my lady,” she said.
lady of the house a woman at the head of a household:
he always asked the lady of the house the shade of paint she would like.
– ORIGIN Old English hlǣfdīge (denoting a woman to whom homage or obedience is due, such as the wife of a lord, also specifically the Virgin Mary), from hlāf ‘loaf’ + a Germanic base meaning ‘knead’, related to dough; compare with lord. In Lady Day and other compounds where it signifies possession, it represents the Old English genitive hlǣfdīgan ‘(Our) Lady's’.