pythoness
Americannoun
-
a woman believed to be possessed by a soothsaying spirit, as the priestess of Apollo at Delphi.
-
a woman who practices divination.
noun
-
a woman, such as Apollo's priestess at Delphi, believed to be possessed by an oracular spirit
-
a female soothsayer
Gender
See -ess.
Etymology
Origin of pythoness
1325–75; python 2 + -ess; replacing Middle English phytonesse < Middle French
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.
Against this doom Genevi�ve Tabouis, ex-political pythoness of Paris' Leftist L'Oeuvre, for seven years waged a one-woman struggle, of which these memoirs are a record.
From Time Magazine Archive
This encouraged me to scrape acquaintance with the pythoness who guarded her, and by means of several small bribes, I was at length admitted to a private interview with Leonora.
From The Orpheus C. Kerr Papers. Series 2 by Newell, R. H. (Robert Henry)
Dora stood in the center of the room like an enraged pythoness, her eyes blazing with passion.
From The Man Between, an International Romance by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
The pythoness, seated on her tripod, rises slowly from it.
From Back to Methuselah by Shaw, Bernard
The scene in the glen, the image of the unprepossessing and mysterious pythoness, and the substance and manner of the sinister warning she communicated, were indeed fixed in her memory ineffaceably.
From The International Monthly, Vol. II, No. I December 1, 1850 by Various
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.
