dame
noun
(in Britain)
dame
American
[deym]
/ deɪm /
noun
dames
plural
-
(initial capital letter) (in Britain)
-
the official title of a female member of the Order of the British Empire, equivalent to that of a knight.
-
the official title of the wife of a knight or baronet.
-
-
(formerly) a form of address to any woman of rank or authority.
-
a matronly woman of advanced age; matron.
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Slang: Sometimes Offensive. a term used to refer to a woman.
Some dame cut me off and almost caused an accident.
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Ecclesiastical. a title of a nun in certain orders.
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a mistress of a dame-school.
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Archaic. the mistress of a household.
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Archaic. a woman of rank or authority, especially a female ruler.
dame
1
British
/ deɪm /
noun
-
(formerly) a woman of rank or dignity; lady
-
a nun who has taken the vows of her order, esp a Benedictine
-
archaic a matronly or elderly woman
-
slang a woman
-
Also called: pantomime dame. the role of a comic old woman in a pantomime, usually played by a man
Dame
2
British
/ deɪm /
noun
-
the title of a woman who has been awarded the Order of the British Empire or any of certain other orders of chivalry
-
the legal title of the wife or widow of a knight or baronet, placed before her name Compare Lady
Dame Judith
Sensitive Note
Dame is sometimes perceived as insulting when used to refer generally to a woman, unless it is a woman of rank or advanced age.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dame
1175–1225; Middle English < Old French < Latin domina, feminine of dominus lord, master
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 “grand dame diva of culture, divahood and porcine glamour” Miss Piggy, was honored at the show, where she showed up, naturally, in a pink dress and feather boa.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
Twila is, in Hollywood parlance, a “firecracker” — you know, the tough-talking dame who inevitably nurses a wounded heart.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2026
England women's football coach Sarina Wiegman was made an honorary dame.
From BBC ● Dec. 31, 2025
The Aberdeen-born politician has been made a dame.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025
“Is that a dame? I can’t see a thing. Someone turn me around.”
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
This year, they’ve upgraded their schedule, adding rival Sherman Oaks Notre Dame for a season-opening nonleague game Aug. 21.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
To focus on baseball, Roch gave up a scholarship offer to play quarterback at Notre Dame.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
“Excluding candidates who engage in deception in their efforts to appear on the ballot is hardly new,” Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller recently wrote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
The chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the MP Dame Emily Thornberry, said there were "still unanswered questions as to how someone so clearly unfit was appointed British Ambassador to the United States".
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
“I’m so glad you could come. Cousins, could you find some sort of soft drink? Dame Hannah, I don’t think you’ve met Lyra...Lord Asriel’s niece, you know.”
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
West, one of the grande dames of the movement, got her start at Seattle alt-weekly the Stranger and spent years excoriating fatphobia, online misogyny, and male entitlement for the ur-millennial-feminist site Jezebel.
From Slate ● Mar. 31, 2026
Until her death last year, Helen Vendler was one of the grandes dames of American letters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
"She's certainly one of the grande dames in Scotland," she said.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2025
In a nod to social change, there was a contingent of drag performers costumed as “Catrinas,” skeletal dames dressed in the height of 1870s fashion.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 4, 2023
The men who fought the American Revolution were no more like these D.A.R. dames than I’m a pot-bellied, perfumed Pekingese dog.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
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.
