villainess
Americannoun
Gender
See -ess.
Etymology
Origin of villainess
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.
Maleficent, for example. re-told the tale of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the villainess.
From BBC • Apr. 4, 2023
She’s not evil, it’s this archetype that chases her: the deadly villainess, the villain behind the man.
From New York Times • Jun. 7, 2022
But the infernal Agni knows, as does any reader familiar with “The Ramayana”: Kaikeyi is destined to play a villainess in the great game of gods and mortals.
From Washington Post • Apr. 26, 2022
In another ambivalent characterization, the newlywed Linnet Ridgeway, who in the book trod a fine line between sympathetic and spoiled, now ricochets between heroine and villainess.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 11, 2022
There was a villainess, also in love with the handsome young minister, and out to get the heroine.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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.
