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• 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.

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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

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Etymology

Origin of dame-school

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

Calchas, for his part, kept a dame-school in this piece, which for the rest was treated with a singular freedom.

From The Forest Lovers by Hewlett, Maurice Henry

When John Clare had reached his seventh year, he was taken away from the dame-school, and sent out to tend sheep and geese on Helpston Heath.

From The Life of John Clare by Martin, Frederick

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

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

From Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects Everyman's Library by Spencer, Herbert

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

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 89, March, 1865 by Various