matron

[mey-truhn]

noun

1. a married woman, especially one who is mature and staid or dignified and has an established social position.

2. a woman who has charge of the domestic affairs of a hospital, prison, or other institution.

3. a woman serving as a guard, warden, or attendant for women or girls, as in a prison.

matron

/ ˈmeɪtrən /

noun

1. a married woman regarded as staid or dignified, esp a middle-aged woman with children

2. a woman in charge of the domestic or medical arrangements in an institution, such as a boarding school

3. a wardress in a prison

4. Official name: nursing officer. the former name for the administrative head of the nursing staff in a hospital

Other Word Forms

• matronal adjective
• matronhood noun
• matronship noun
• matron-like adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of matron¹

1350–1400; Middle English matrone < Latin mātrōna a married woman, wife, derivative of māter mother

Word History and Origins

Origin of matron¹

C14: via Old French from Latin mātrōna, from māter mother

Example Sentences

Faith plays a goth schoolgirl in the film, Imrie plays a school matron, while Sir Stephen plays himself, as the school quiz master.

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She asked to speak to the matron and was "ushered into the kitchen where a teenage girl was eating rice".

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Seema cosplaying a garden society matron certainly isn’t the worst vision this show has served.

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She arrived for breakfast looking elegant in a black-and-white caftan, the picture of an Upper West Side matron, a matron without a sizable body count.

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“Staff didn’t have time to process or accept the losses,” the lead ICU matron at one large teaching hospital told Prof Fong.

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Related Words

• dowager 
• housekeeper 
• matriarch