duchesse

plural duchesses

1. countableA French duchess.

   Ary Scheffer, the drawing-master of the young Orleans princesses, offered to go with Thiers and procure him an audience of the duc or duchesse, or Madame Adélaïde.

   1877 December 15, Emily Crawford, “M. Thiers: A Sketch from Life”, in Littell’s Living Age, volume CXXXV / fifth series, volume XX, number 1748, Boston, Mass.: Littell and Gay, page 679, column 2

   3 more examples

   “[T]hat little violet [La Vallière], who hid herself in the grass, and was ashamed of being a mistress, a mother, and a duchesse; that will never be the model.”—Mme de Sévigné.

   1888, Augustus J[ohn] C[uthbert] Hare, Days Near Paris, New York, N.Y.; London; Glasgow: George Routledge and Sons, page 257

   Among the guests are Léon Bourgeois, president of the Chamber of Deputies, the Italian, German and Russian ambassadors, comtesse Greffulhe, the grande-duchesse Vladimir with comtesse Adhéaume de Chevigné, several comtes, comtesses, ducs and duchesses, […]

   1990, Ronald Hayman, “For Le Figaro”, in Proust: A Biography, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section III (1896–1905 Breakfast at Night), page 179

   She was the eighth child of the duc and duchesse of Enghien and, as a member of the reigning Bourbon house, was styled a princesse du sang, or princess of the blood.

   2022, Belinda Scerri, “‘Instructing herself by fad or fancy’: Depictions and Fictions of Connoisseuses and Femmes Savantes in Eighteenth-Century Paris”, in Beatrijs Vanacker, Lieke van Deinsen, editors, Portraits and Poses: Female Intellectual Authority, Agency and Authorship in Early Modern Europe, Leuven: Leuven University Press, →ISBN, part II (Types and Models of Female Intellectual Authority), page 187

2. countableA type of dressing table with a swing glass.

   One morning, during my first week at school, I sneaked into Mum and Dad's bedroom, opened the top drawer of the duchesse, where the coins ‘brought back from the war’ were kept, and helped myself to a handful.

   1982, Janet Frame, An Angel at my Table, Virago, published 2024, page 22

3. abbreviationellipsisuncountableEllipsis of duchesse lace.

plural duchesses

1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of duchess.

   The Lord of Ragny carryed her in the place of Diana Ducheſſe of Angouleſme, who repreſented the Infanta Iſabella Clara Eugenia, Archducheſſe of Auſtria, being followed by the daughters of Rohan, Montmorencie, and Mayenne, who were Virgins, and the Ducheſſes of Rohan, Suilly, and others.

   1611, Ed[ward] Grimeston, A Generall Historie of France, Written by Iohn de Serres vnto the Yeare .1598. Much Augmented and Continued vnto This Present, out of the Most Approoued Authors That Haue Written of that Subiect., […] George Eld, page 1220

   2 more examples

   For the ſaid Lord of Chaumont, went himſelfe peaceably through the countrie with a good band of men to Rouure, from whence he led the Ducheſſe of Sauoy and all hir traine to the next place of the Kings dominions. Before the diſpatch of the Ducheſſes laſt meſſenger, the King was departed from Lions[…]

   1601, Thomas Danett, transl., The Historie of Philip de Commines Knight, Lord of Argenton, London: […] Ar. Hatfield, for I. Norton, page 147

   The people departed, and the Duke and Ducheſſe returned, and Don Quixote with them to the Caſtle, Toſilos was ſhut vp, Donna Rodriguez and her daughter were moſt happy, to ſee that one way or other, that buſineſſe ſhould end in marriage, and Toſilos hoped no leſſe. CHAP. LVII. How Don Quixote tooke his leaue of the Duke, and what befell him with the witty wanton Altiſidora, the Ducheſſes Damozell.

   1620, The Second Part of the History of the Valorous and Witty Knight-Errant, Don Quixote of the Mançha, London: […] Edward Blount, translation of original by Michael Ceruantes, pages 380–381