/ˈmæd.əm/, /məˈdam/, /məˈdæm/
OriginFrom Middle English madame, from Old French madame, from ma (“my”) + dame (“lady”), from post-classical Latin mea domina. Doublet of Madonna.
- A polite form of address for a woman or lady.
“Mrs Grey wondered if the outfit she was trying on made her look fat. The sales assistant just said, “It suits you, madam”.”
“Later, Mrs Grey was sitting in her favourite tea shop. “Would madam like the usual cream cakes and patisserie with her tea?” the waitress asked.”
““Nothing, madam, but a tumbler of wine with a little water—thank you, madam. Mesdames, great events have occurred since I left you.””
- The mistress of a household.
- colloquialA conceited or quarrelsome girl.
“Selina kept pushing and shoving during musical chairs. The nursery school teacher said she was a bad-tempered little madam.”
- slangA woman who runs a brothel, particularly one that specializes in finding prostitutes for rich and important clients.
“After she grew too old to work as a prostitute, she became a madam.”
“I sneaked into the house and stole my sister’s Hudson-seal fur coat out of the closet, then I beat it down to a whorehouse and sold it to the madam for $150.”
- alt-ofAlternative letter-case form of madam.
“The conſtant queſtion, upon her offering to ſtir abroad, was, where are you going Madam? To ſee the King my papa, replied the Princeſs. That cannot be Madam. No? why ſo? It is not the Etiquette. — And”
“And nowadays the Madam will blame the Worker’s Unions […] Very unnatural but the Mesdames take the girls for granted”
“After two years, Madam X was busy enough to take on a partner: Madam Z, aged twenty. Both regularly scouted new marks and told Stead that ‘nurse girls’ (nannies) were the best: ‘there are any number i”
- SingaporeA polite form of address and title, abbreviated Mdm, used before a (usually middle-aged) adult or elderly woman's surname, full name or given name if she does not have a family name.
- transitiveTo address as "madam".
“Madam me no Madam, but learn to retrench your vvords; and ſay Mam; as yes Mam, and no Mam, as other Ladies VVomen do. Madam! 'tis a year in pronouncing.”
“In Houſes where great Numbers of theſe Wretches are lodg’d it is both merry and melancholy to hear what a Maiding and Madamming there is all Day long, from the top of the Houſe to the bottom.”
“Don’t madam me, — I can’t bear none of your lip service. I’m a plain-spoken woman, that’s what I am, and I like other people’s tongues to be as plain as mine.”
- ambitransitive, rareTo be a madam; to run (a brothel).
“The writer has never accepted the criterion “will it make money?” He has known that the application of such an irrelevancy to any of the arts and sciences resulted in sterility, error and waste. But w”
“Margaret Long’s freudianized Louisville does not have the local color of the famous Lexington bordello madamed by the late Belle Breezing (in the process of being fictionized); […]”
“I DIDN’T set out to be a madam any more than Arthur Michael Ramsey, when he was a kid, set out to be Archbishop of Canterbury. Things just happened to both of us, I guess. […] Madaming is the sort of ”
Formsmadams(plural) · mesdames(plural) · madame(alternative) · madams(present, singular, third-person) · madaming(participle, present) · madamming(participle, present, rare) · madamed(participle, past) · madamed(past) · madammed(participle, past, rare) · madammed(past, rare) · Madams(plural) · Mesdames(plural)