grande dame
Americannoun
plural
grandes dames-
a usually elderly woman of dignified or aristocratic bearing.
-
a woman who is the doyenne of a specific field.
a grande dame of the American theater.
noun
Etymology
Origin of grande dame
1735–45; < French: literally, great lady
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.
Today’s glass and steel tower over the bones of what was once the grande dame of colonial luxury, the Hong Kong Hotel.
From Salon • Jul. 12, 2025
But now the grande dame has decided to hang up her ballet shoes after a 72 year career.
From BBC • Apr. 24, 2025
In the summer of 1974, I was working as a waiter at the White Elephant, the grande dame of Nantucket hotels, a rambling gray-shingled pile that sits right on the island’s harbor.
From New York Times • May 26, 2024
Some years ago, I was a guest for lunch there, the plus-one of an English friend who had been invited by Vanderlip’s grande dame daughter-in-law Elin.
From Los Angeles Times • May 3, 2024
They were boarding a train for Oxford to meet Dorothy Hodgkin, the grande dame of crystallography.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
