grande dame

plural grandes dames

1. alsoattributiveA woman who is high-ranking, socially prominent, or has a dignified character, especially one who is advanced in age and haughty.First known use early 18th c.

   She has been buying (under my guidance) new clothes and she looks quite the grande dame.

   1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 141

   5 more examples

   In general the Continental, or at least the Belgian old women permit themselves a license of manners, speech, and aspect, such as our venerable grand-dames would recoil from as absolutely disreputable, […]

   a. 1856 (date written), Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter VIII, in A[rthur] B[ell] Nicholls, editor, The Professor, a Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 140

   You only 'make love' languidly to some grande dame, who blinds him with sandal-wood and stifles him in lace; […]

   1865, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], “Feathery Seeds that were Freighted with Fruit of the Future”, in Strathmore: A Romance […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 219

   Now the Baronne de Ribaumont Walwyn was a veritable grande dame, and Madame Croquelebois, in spite of her sharp nose, and sharper tongue, was quite cowed by her, and absolutely driven to confess that she had not heard a word against Madame la Contesse.

   1883, Charlotte M[ary] Yonge, “A Patient Grisel”, in Stray Pearls: Memoirs of Margaret de Ribaumont, Viscountess of Bellaise, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, pages 232–233

   Do you no longer want to go to Europe? to court? to be grande dame and converse with princes?

   1902 March, Gertrude Franklin Atherton, chapter III, in The Conqueror: Being the True and Romantic Story of Alexander Hamilton, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, book I (Rachel Levine), page 15

   "Beatniks," snorted one grande dame as she pushed her way toward her chauffeur-driven limousine.

   1966 August 19, “Resorts: Happening at the Hamptons”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Oct 2010

   Synonyms: dowager, doyenne, grande madame

2. alsoattributiveA woman who is accomplished and influential, and is a respected senior figure in a particular field; a doyenne.

   As the grande dame of Latin American actresses, Norma Aleandro is accustomed to having choice roles gravitate in her direction.

   2007 July 15, Larry Rohter, “Movies: A part made for her”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022

   1 more example

   Died. Ruth St. Denis, 90, grande dame of modern dance, whose foresight and inspiration helped change the U.S. from a choreographic wasteland to what is today one of the world's foremost centers of dance; […]

   1965 August 2, “Milestones”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Oct 2010

3. alsoattributivefigurativelyA very highly regarded and well-known institution or structure, or large conveyance such as a ship.

   Carlton […] Returned to its former glory, this is the grande dame of all Bilbao hotels.

   2006, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, “The Basque Country”, in Alexia Meyers Travaglini, editor, Spain 2007 (Frommer’s), Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley Publishing, →ISBN, page 534