devouress

D2E1V4O1U1R1E1S1S1

noun

A female devourer.

“She was a devouress of men, exhausting one and then moving on to the next.”

Scrabble 13

Meanings

noundevouress (plural devouresses)

plural devouresses

  1. 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 280–281

    In 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

  1. Old Frenchdevoureresse
  2. Englishdevouress

Shortened from devoureress, from the Old French devoureresse, feminine form of devoreor.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

devouress. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/devouress

MLA

“devouress.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/devouress. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “devouress,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/devouress.

Source: devouress on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.