Duchess
name, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The wife or widow of a duke.
"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have ended months of intense speculation by announcing they are expecting their first child, but were forced to share their news earlier than hoped because of the Duchess's admission to hospital on Monday."
- 2 the wife of a duke or a woman holding ducal title in her own right wordnet
- 3 The female ruler of a duchy.
- 1 to court or curry favour for political or business advantage; to flatter obsequiously. Australia, informal
"On arrival in England he was “duchessed” in a manner that no Australian Prime Minister has ever been “duchessed” before or since. Northcliffe was looking for someone around whom he could build a campaign against Asquith. Hughes filled the bill nicely."
- 1 A village in Alberta, Canada.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"The Princess of Cleves being at those years, wherein people think a woman is incapable of inciting love after the age of twenty-five, beheld with the utmost astonishment the King's passion for the Duchess, who was a grandmother, and had lately married her granddaughter."
Etymology
From Middle English duchesse, from Old French duchesse. Doublet of duchesse.
Related phrases
More for "duchess"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.