Memsahib

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A white European woman in colonial India. India, historical

    "She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible"

  2. 2
    a woman sahib wordnet

Example

More examples

"She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible"

Etymology

From ma'am + sahib.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.