seamstress

[seem-stris or, esp. British, sem-]

See more synonyms for seamstress on Thesaurus.com

noun

a woman whose occupation is sewing.

Also sempstress.

Origin of seamstress

First recorded in 1605–15; seamst(e)r + -ess

Usage note

See -ess.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for seamstress

tailor, clothier, dressmaker

Examples from the Web for seamstress

Contemporary Examples of seamstress

Mavis Lilian Lever was born in Dulwich, south London, on May 5, 1921, the daughter of a postal worker and a seamstress.
Week in Death: The Woman Who Cracked Hitler’s Codes
The Telegraph
November 17, 2013
Danny, the only child of Su Zhen, a seamstress, and Yan Tao, a chef, lived in public housing on the Lower East Side.
Arrests of Service Men Raises Question of Racism in Soldier's Death
Diane Herbst
December 22, 2011
Her mother was a seamstress and her father drove a delivery truck for Coca-Cola.
Joy Behar's New Point of View
Kevin Sessums
May 12, 2010
The “team of stylists” around her in Minneapolis that Palin describes consisted of Kline, her assistant, and a seamstress.
Palin's Katie Couric Myths
Shushannah Walshe
November 18, 2009

Historical Examples of seamstress

That's the seamstress who was mentioned to me by a small tenant of mine?
Little Dorrit
Charles Dickens
The supposed Evremonde descends, and the seamstress is lifted out next after him.
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
She did not yet know whether she was present as a seamstress or as a guest.
In Apple-Blossom Time
Clara Louise Burnham
Lucy Watson, the girl whom you met in the hall just now—is my seamstress.
Evenings at Donaldson Manor
Maria J. McIntosh
She was a seamstress and a widow with one little daughter, Nettie.
Sunshine Factory
Pansy

British Dictionary definitions for seamstress

seamstress

rarely sempstress (ˈsɛmpstrɪs)

noun

a woman who sews and makes clothes, esp professionally

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for seamstress

1640s, with -ess + seamster (also sempster), from Old English seamestre "sewer, tailor, person whose work is sewing," from seam. Originally indicating a woman, but after a while the fem. ending -estre no longer was felt as such and a new one added.