inquisitress

[in-kwiz-i-tris]

noun

1. a woman who makes an inquisition.

Gender Note

See -ess.

Word History and Origins

Origin of inquisitress¹

First recorded in 1720–30; inquisit(o)r + -ess

Example Sentences

"Why, my dear, when people are abroad they can't be at home," continued the inquisitress.

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Jake repeated, turning ashen pale, and fixing his inquisitress with a distant gaze.

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"But what says the favorite Sultana to this?" asked the Grand Inquisitress.

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Last Sunday's gutsy John Bridger-trained Brighton winner Inquisitress is so named not for her nature, but because she has an unusual question mark shape on her forehead with a less prominent white spot further down, completing the shape of the symbol.

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Little Jesuit inquisitress as she was, she could see things in a true light, and understand them in an unperverted sense; but the idea that she had ventured to communicate information, thus gained, to others; that she had, perhaps, amused herself with a companion over documents, in my eyes most sacred, shocked me cruelly.

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