chatelaine
Americannoun
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chatelaines
plural
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the mistress of a castle.
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the mistress of an elegant or fashionable household.
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a hooklike clasp or a chain for suspending keys, trinkets, scissors, a watch, etc., worn at the waist by women.
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a woman's lapel ornament resembling this.
noun
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(esp formerly) the mistress of a castle or fashionable household
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a chain or clasp worn at the waist by women in the 16th to the 19th centuries, with handkerchief, keys, etc, attached
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a decorative pendant worn on the lapel
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of chatelaine
From the French word châtelaine, dating back to 1835–45. See chatelain
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The conversation is interrupted momentarily when Lady Carnarvon, the estate's current chatelaine, pops by to fix herself an espresso.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2015
Deborah, who married a nobleman and became chatelaine of the vast Chatsworth estate in central England, died last week aged 94.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 2, 2014
The Old Lady will have to wait for her first chatelaine.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 18, 2012
Apparently weighed down by her responsibilities as chatelaine of Pemberley — the need to keep up appearances and propriety — she’s become earnest and dutiful, seldom speaking her mind.
From New York Times ● Dec. 26, 2011
Daisy found it impossible to keep her eyes off her ‘pitty aunty’, but attached herself like a lap dog to the wonderful chatelaine full of delightful charms.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
To illustrate Mr. Blahnik’s inspirations, he dressed up Ms. Birley and the Chanel creative consultant Amanda Harlech as Victorian chatelaines and captured them strolling across the fields of a British estate.
From New York Times ● Sep. 13, 2017
She jingled with chains and watches and lockets and chatelaines, carried more rings than a cane rack, and walked with the air of the heroine of the society drama at the opera house.
From In Our Town by Frederic Rodrigo Gruger
But how many would have recognised its superiority to the tinsel stuff of those recent days, full of galvanised knights and stuffed chatelaines?
From Essays on Modern Novelists by William Lyon Phelps
Was he to travel from estate to estate and alienate the affection of young chatelaines from their favourite lieutenants?
From The Indian Lily and Other Stories by Ludwig Lewisohn
The worthy old ladies were wont to carry a silver grater and Nutmeg case suspended from the waist on their chatelaines.
From Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure by William Thomas Fernie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
