Definition of "mistress" []

• A woman who has a continuing sexual relationship with a usually married man who is not her husband and from whom she generally receives material support. (noun)
• A woman in a position of authority, control, or ownership, as the head of a household: "Thirteen years had seen her mistress of Kellynch Hall” ( Jane Austen). (noun)
• A woman who owns or keeps an animal: a cat sitting in its mistress's lap. (noun)
• A woman who owns a slave. (noun)
• A woman with ultimate control over something: the mistress of her own mind. (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.

• "_I know no mistress; out upon thy mistress_ Steevens conj."
• "_Tedaldo Elisei, having fallen out with his mistress, departeth Florence and returning thither, after awhile, in a pilgrim's favour, speaketh with the lady and maketh her cognisant of her error; after which he delivereth her husband, who had been convicted of murdering him, from death and reconciling him with his brethren, thenceforward discreetly enjoyeth himself with his mistress_"
• "Why do they think they deserve the title mistress?"