stewardess
Americannoun
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stewardesses
plural
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a woman flight attendant.
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a woman who attends to the comfort of passengers on a ship, train, or bus.
noun
Gender
See -ess.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of stewardess
1625–35 for earlier sense “female steward”; 1930–35 stewardess for def. 1; steward + -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.
See Examples For:
“But also, the stewardess is flying around so much that they are probably safe too.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
As stewardess and later purser on Air France airliners, Lainault clocked up 12,600 flight hours between 1989 and 2019.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
On an airplane, recently, she noticed that when the stewardess came around offering coffee and tea, a surprising number of adults opted for hot chocolate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025
David Zucker: My favorite has always been when the stewardess says, "I've never been so scared, and besides, I am 26 and I'm not married."
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2023
He feels hungry all of a sudden, wishes he’d thought to save the bagel the stewardess had handed him on the plane.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
In 1963, eight stewardesses held a news conference in New York’s Commodore Hotel.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2022
“Catch Me If You Can” leans hard into ’60s chic, with an ensemble of Pan Am airline stewardesses and a variety-show orchestra on stage.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2019
"But it was feared that if one of the stewardesses didn't stay aboard, he may not let the passengers off in Denver."
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2019
The passengers and crew members inside the cabin described a chaotic scene in which the meals the attendants were serving were thrown about and the stewardesses themselves were tossed into the air.
From Slate ● May 15, 2018
Ma's eyes close as the stewardesses busy themselves with preflight chores.
From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins
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.
