peeress

American  

[peer-is] / ˈpɪər ɪs /

noun

1. the wife or widow of a peer.

2. a woman having in her own right the rank of a peer.

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peeress British  

/ ˈpɪərɪs /

noun

1. the wife or widow of a peer

2. a woman holding the rank of a peer in her own right

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Gender

See -ess.

Etymology

Origin of peeress

First recorded in 1680–90; peer ² + -ess

Example Sentences

However, on her appointment as minister for Europe, she became a peeress in her own right.

From BBC • Dec. 3, 2023

Which explains how the Mayfair peeress who asked me for cocktails one day has a villa packed with Vieux Paris silver-plate and Louis XVI armchairs covered in needlepoint scenes from La Fontaine’s “Fables.”

From New York Times • May 20, 2011

In the House of Lords, a Laborite peeress asked scathingly if the government considered it "conducive to British prestige that holders of British passports should be wandering about the world like Flying Dutchmen."

From Time Magazine Archive

The peer and the peeress sang the words for the delegates near them.'

From Time Magazine Archive

We have an instance very fresh in every one's memory, of an ingenious, nay a sober young nobleman, for such I must call him, whose either father was a peer, and his mother a peeress.

From Augusta Triumphans Or, the Way to Make London the Most Flourishing City in the Universe by Defoe, Daniel