Meanings
- historicaluncountableA traditional memory game in which players must accurately repeat an increasingly long sentence, with forfeits and additional rules imposed for making mistakes.
[…] and finally, laughing and all tired out, they stopped to rest and to think of some other game. They played “Buz” till they were rested, and then “Genteel Lady,” where every time a little girl made a mistake she had to have a lamplighter stuck in her hair.
1876, Ballou's Monthly Magazine, volume 44, page 5901 more example
GENTEEL LADY. This game is played by girls, and she who makes a mistake in it is decorated with a paper horn, a number of which must be prepared previously. All being seated in a circle, one of them turns to her neighbour, and begins the game by saying,— "Good morning, genteel lady, always genteel. […]
1893, Riddles and Rhymes, page 113
Cite this entry
genteel lady. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/genteel%20lady
“genteel lady.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/genteel%20lady. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “genteel lady,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/genteel%20lady.
Source: genteel lady on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.