Jump To:

• dame-school
  dame-school

  noun

  a school in which the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught to neighborhood children by a woman in her own home.
• dame school
  dame school

  noun

  (formerly) a small school, often in a village, usually run by an elderly woman in her own home to teach young children to read and write

dame-school

American  

[deym-skool] / ˈdeɪmˌskul /

noun

1. a school in which the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught to neighborhood children by a woman in her own home.

---

dame school British  

noun

1. (formerly) a small school, often in a village, usually run by an elderly woman in her own home to teach young children to read and write

---

Etymology

Origin of dame-school

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

She went, with other boys and girls, to a small dame-school on the other side of Bowdoin Square; for Jamie would not hear of a public school.

From Pirate Gold by Stimson, Frederic Jesup

The mistress of the dame-school at Clermont recognised in the Abbé's protégé her former pupil.

From Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton by Anonymous

This is an affectionate half-humorous description of the little dame-school of Shenstone's—and of everybody's—native village, and has the true idyllic touch.

From A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century by Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)

In the porch a white-headed woman, in a gold-edged blue kerchief and poppy-red skirt, was holding a dame-school.

From Spanish Highways and Byways by Bates, Katharine Lee

The gods do not keep a dame-school for us here on earth, and their ways are less obvious than that.

From Pirate Gold by Stimson, Frederic Jesup