Meanings
plural devouresses
- obsoleteA female devourer.
She was a devouress of men, exhausting one and then moving on to the next.
2 more examples
The devotee of the East cited the so-called Tourfan Madonna as being in his opinion an evolution of the Goddess Marichi, who after being a cruel devouress of children gradually evolved into their solicitous guardian, becoming the spiritual comrade of Kuvera, god of fortune and wealth.
1930, Nicholas Roerich, “The Great Mother”, in Shambhala, New York, N.Y.: Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company, →OCLC, pages 280–281In the New Kingdom, this new aspect of death as enemy was condensed into the "Devouress", the monster that sat beside the scale at the Judgement of the Dead, ready to swallow the heart of any deceased person if it was laden with guilt when examined and thus found to be too heavy.
2005, Jan Assmann, Death and salvation in ancient Egypt, Cornell University Press, page 149
Origin
- Old Frenchdevoureresse
- Englishdevouress
Shortened from devoureress, from the Old French devoureresse, feminine form of devoreor.
More words from Old French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
devouress. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/devouress
“devouress.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/devouress. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “devouress,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/devouress.
Source: devouress on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.