Definition of "taskmistress" [taskmistress]

• A woman who imposes tasks, especially burdensome or laborious ones. (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.

• "The Project Runway taskmistress is even less well-equipped to playing hidden-camera pranks like Candid Camera's Allen Funt: A bit in which she affixed big fake boogers to her nose was aptly titled "You Think It's Funny, But It's Snot.""
• "I epublish with a magazine called The Edge of Propinquity, and my editor there is both amazing and a taskmistress like whoa."
• "The centaur was a harsh taskmistress - which was of course why she had been given the job."