What is "mistress"

Mistress \Mis"tress\, n. [OE. maistress, OF. maistresse, F. ma[^i]tresse, LL. magistrissa, for L. magistra, fem. of magister. See Master, Mister, and cf. Miss a young woman.]

1. A woman having power, authority, or ownership; a woman who exercises authority, is chief, etc.; the female head of a family, a school, etc.

   The late queen's gentlewoman! a knight's daughter! To be her mistress' mistress!
   --Shak.

2. A woman well skilled in anything, or having the mastery over it.

   A letter desires all young wives to make themselves mistresses of Wingate's Arithmetic.
   --Addison.

3. A woman regarded with love and devotion; she who has command over one's heart; a beloved object; a sweetheart. [Poetic]
   --Clarendon.

4. A woman filling the place, but without the rights, of a wife; a woman having an ongoing usually exclusive sexual relationship with a man, who may provide her with financial support in return; a concubine; a loose woman with whom one consorts habitually; as, both his wife and his mistress attended his funeral.
   --Spectator.

5. A title of courtesy formerly prefixed to the name of a woman, married or unmarried, but now superseded by the contracted forms, Mrs., for a married, and Miss, for an unmarried, woman.

   Now Mistress Gilpin (careful soul).
   --Cowper.

6. A married woman; a wife. [Scot.]

   Several of the neighboring mistresses had assembled to witness the event of this memorable evening.
   --Sir W. Scott.

7. The old name of the jack at bowls.
   --Beau. & Fl.

   To be one's own mistress, to be exempt from control by another person.

Mistress \Mis"tress\, v. i. To wait upon a mistress; to be courting. [Obs.]
--Donne.

early 14c., "female teacher, governess," from Old French maistresse "mistress (lover); housekeeper; governess, female teacher" (Modern French maîtresse), fem. of maistre "master" (see master (n.)). Sense of "a woman who employs others or has authority over servants" is from early 15c. Sense of "kept woman of a married man" is from early 15c.

n. A woman, specifically one with great control, authority or ownership.

1. n. an adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man [syn: kept woman, fancy woman]

2. a woman schoolteacher (especially one regarded as strict) [syn: schoolmarm, schoolma'am, schoolmistress]

3. a woman master who directs the work of others

Mistress may refer to:

• Mistress (lover), a woman, other than the spouse, with whom a married individual has a continuing sexual relationship
• Female schoolmaster, also called a schoolmistress or "schoolmarm"
• Dominatrix, in BDSM

A mistress is a relatively long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner, especially when her partner is married. Generally, the relationship is stable and at least semi-permanent, but the couple does not live together openly and the relationship is usually, but not always, secret. There is often also the implication (if not the fact) that the mistress is "kept"i.e. that her lover is paying for some (and sometimes all) of her living expenses.

The term "mistress" was originally used as a neutral feminine counterpart to "mister" or "master".

Mistress is an old form of address for a woman. It implies "lady of the house", especially a woman who is head of a household with domestic workers.

An example is Mistress Quickly in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. The title did not necessarily distinguish between married and unmarried women.

The titles Mrs., Miss and Ms. are abbreviations derived from Mistress.

Mistress were an extreme metal band from Birmingham, England, United Kingdom. The members of this five-piece band adopted pseudonyms as stage-names including: Drunken and Misery on guitars, Dirty Von Arse on bass, Dave Cunt on vocals and Migg on drums. Dave Cunt (aka Dave Hunt) is also a member of Anaal Nathrakh and Benediction and Migg (aka Mick Kenney) is in several other bands, including Anaal Nathrakh, Exploder, Fukpig and Frost. Mistress announced their split on 4 March 2008.

Mistress is a 1992 comedy-drama film starring Robert De Niro, Danny Aiello, Eli Wallach, Robert Wuhl and Martin Landau. The picture was written by Barry Primus and J.F. Lawton and directed by Primus.

Mistress is a 1987 television film written by Joyce Eliason and starring Victoria Principal as Rae Colton, a beautiful woman in her middle thirties who is having an affair with a rich, married man named Wyn Brooks ( Don Murray).

Mistress is a stand-alone James Patterson novel, as it is not part any of the series novels written by Patterson.

Mistress is an independent creative and strategic advertising agency based in Los Angeles, California and Hamburg, Germany.