delta female

plural delta females

1. A relatively low-status woman in the sociosexual hierarchy, (ranking below alpha, beta, and gamma females, but above omega females).

   There are only two types of Delta Female who have ever successfully captured the Alpha Male!

   2019, Ruby Wax, How Do You Want Me?, page 144

   2 more examples

   If a DSM “lets herself go”—the phrase is one of the most horrible in the Delta female's lexicon—Mother will regard it as a reflection on herself.

   2009, Gayden Metcalfe, Some Day You'll Thank Me for This

   In plain English, the alpha female is telling her beta-mate that she wants this Debbie girl, who will be very much a delta female, to take up the spare room in their flat, since her parents have cast her out in the snow.

   2012, Malcolm Macdonald, Strange Music

2. A female animal that ranks fourth in the social hierarchy.

   The beta female approaches the delta female who sits with an infant at her chest.

   2013, Leonard A. Rosenblum, Primate Behavior: Developments in Field and Laboratory Research, page 308

   2 more examples

   The alpha female moves through the tree and sits next to the delta female; she reaches for her infant, but the delta female turns her back.

   1968 June, Frank E. Poirier, “The Nilgiri langur (Presbytis johnii) mother-infant dyad”, in Primates, volume 9

   It is interesting to note in this regard that the alpha female slapped the beta female, but only displayed toward the delta female.

   1973, Folia Primatologica, page 460