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lady

Flag: gbEnglishOxford Dictionary of English
lady /ˈleɪdi /
▸ noun
(plural ladies /ˈleɪdiz /)
1 a polite or formal way of referring to a woman:
I spoke to the lady at the travel agency
[as modifier] a lady doctor.
▪ used as a courteous designation for a female fellow member of the House of Commons:
the Right Honourable Lady promised me her support.
▪ mainly North American English used as an informal, often brusque, form of address to a woman:
I'm sorry, lady, but you have the wrong number.
2 a woman of good social position:
lords and ladies 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.
▪ a woman at the head of a household:
a portrait of the lady of the house.
3 (one's lady) dated a man's wife:
the vice president and his lady.
▪ dated a female lover or girlfriend:
the young man bought a rose for his lady.
▪ historical a woman to whom a man, especially a knight, is chivalrously devoted.
4 (the ladies) British English a women's public toilet.
– PHRASES
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 free time to meet socially for lunch in expensive restaurants:
these forgotten types, the ladies who lunch and underwrite foundling hospitals.
Lady Bountiful /ˌleɪdi ˈbaʊntɪfʊl /
a woman who engages in ostentatious acts of charity to impress others.
[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 /ˌleɪdi ˈmʌk / British English informal
a haughty or socially pretentious woman:
it's that woman, Lady Muck herself—who does she think she is?.
My Lady
a polite form of address to female judges and certain noblewomen:
‘You look truly charming, my lady,’ she said.
– DERIVATIVES
ladyhood noun
– 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’.