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dame-school

[deym-skool]
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noun (formerly)
  1. a school in which the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught to neighborhood children by a woman in her own home.
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Origin of dame-school

First recorded in 1810–20
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for dame-school

Historical Examples

  • We seldom see engravings in the classics of the college; these are reserved for the spelling-books of the dame-school.

    The Art of Illustration

    Charles Haddon Spurgeon

  • Here is his account of his first attendance at the central town-school of Dorchester, after he had left a dame-school.

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

  • The dame-school, which was about a mile from the village, was a long, low house with a thatched roof.

  • The mistress of a dame-school can hear spelling-lessons; and any hedge-schoolmaster can drill boys in the multiplication-table.