Mistress

Mistress - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

MIS'TRESS, n. [L. magistra.]

1. A woman who governs; correlative to servant, slave, or subject.

My mistress here lies murdered in her bed.

2. The female head of a family.

3. That which governs; a sovereign. Rome was mistress of the world.

4. One that commands, or has possession and sovereignty. The queen is mistress of the Indies.

5. A female who is well skilled in any thing; as, she is mistress of arithmetic.

6. A woman teacher; an instructress of a school.

7. A woman beloved and courted.

8. A woman in keeping for lewd purposes.

9. A term of contemptuous address.

MIS'TRESS, v.t. To wait upon a mistress; to be courting.

mis'-tres (ba`alah, gebhereth): Is the translation of ba`alah, "lady," "owner" (1Ki 17:17; Na 3:4); in 1Sa 28:7, "a woman that hath a familiar spirit" is literally, "the mistress of a familiar spirit"; of gebhereth (Ge 16:4,8,9; 2Ki 5:3; Ps 123:2; Pr 30:23; Isa 24:2); in Isa 47:5,7, we have the King James Version and the English Revised Version "lady," the American Standard Revised Version "mistress."