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
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Etymology
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
But now the grande dame has decided to hang up her ballet shoes after a 72 year career.
From BBC
Lange’s Lillian Hall is a theater grande dame playing the charismatic matriarch in a Broadway revival of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.”
From New York Times
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
The first pick here comes from a grande dame of Australian letters, although she would probably balk at the term.
From New York Times
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.
