Definition of "marquise" []

• See marchioness. (noun)
• See marquee. (noun)
• A finger ring set with a pointed oval stone or cluster of pointed oval stones. (noun)
• A pointed oval shape of a gem. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Louis XIV had already given her pensions and gifts of money in appreciation for her care of his children, and in February of the next year he conferred upon her the title marquise de Maintenon."
• "The "little marquise" is said to have died in child-bed at the Hague, in 1661."
• "Though the marquise was a handsome and clever woman, her rivals took delight in comparing her with her sister-inlaw, with all the more point because the countess was a dozen years younger."