protectress
Americannoun
Gender
See -ess.
Etymology
Origin of protectress
First recorded in 1560–70; protect(o)r + -ess
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.
Van Dyck — meeting the new demand, and not a little grateful himself — takes a half-finished self-portrait, slathers it with primer and paints the new protectress, floating gloriously over the illness-ravaged port town.
From New York Times • Mar. 26, 2020
One protectress of the healing arts in a 19th-century painting rides a nine-headed bird through the sky.
From New York Times • Mar. 14, 2014
“Saint Kateri, protectress of Canada and the first American Indian saint, we entrust you to the renewal of the faith in the first nations and in all of North America.”
From New York Times • Oct. 21, 2012
"In all my years in the theater," proclaimed the outraged protectress, "I have never witnessed an attitude like this."
From Time Magazine Archive
Like a good huntsman, she was careful to preserve the young; she was “the protectress of dewy youth” everywhere.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
