stepdame
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of stepdame
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at step-, dame
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.
She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit Of her enraged stepdame Guendolin, Commended her fair innocence to the flood, That stay’d her flight with his cross-flowing course.
From A Tour throughout South Wales and Monmouthshire by Barber, J. T.
Anybody would have guessed Miss to have been bred up under the influence of a cruel stepdame, and John to be the fondling of a tender mother.
From History of John Bull by Arbuthnot, John
As false As air, as water, as wind, as sandy earth; As fox to lamb; as wolf to heifer's calf; Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son.
From Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations by Various
There is A spur in its halt movements, to become All that the others cannot, in such things As still are free to both, to compensate320 For stepdame Nature's avarice at first.
From The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 5 Poetry by Coleridge, Ernest Hartley
"Well, then, dost think I should make a fitting stepdame for Bartholomew and Mary and Remember?"
From Standish of Standish A story of the Pilgrims by Austin, Jane G. (Jane Goodwin)
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.
