grande madame

plural grandes mesdames · plural grandes madames · plural grande madames

1. Synonym of grande dame.

   “Such a beautiful grande madame . . . and me a child—no name!”

   1906, J. H. Yoxall, Beyond the Wall, London: Hutchinson & Co., page 151

   5 more examples

   “‘Dear Droigel,’ she made reply, ‘the same idea has occurred to me so often, so often, only I could never put it into words. You are right. Somewhere a youth or a maiden is living a wretched life because of the voice given in error to me. I ought never to have been a singer; it is not my rôle in the least.’ / “‘You think that of a grande madame will suit you better?’ I suggested. / “‘I mean to try,’ she answered gaily. ‘Come and see, Droigel, how I support my character.’ / “‘Child,’ I said, ‘if you are really going to try this new life, better leave the old entirely behind you. Between Droigel and Lady ⸺ there is a gulf fixed; but if Mademoiselle ever wants anything in which Droigel can serve her, she has but to hold up her finger and say, “Come.”’

   1873, Mrs. Riddell, Home, Sweet Home. A Novel, volume II, London: Tinsley Brothers, pages 263–264

   Yet we native women, says she, we bear the children of our body with short anguish and long joy; but the white Grandes Madames bear the children of their thoughts with a travail that never ceases—so says my grandmother; and she tells of what she knows, for she is old in years, and very wise.

   1914, Elinor Mordaunt, The Island, London: William Heinemann, page 152

   The only thing Sister Bauknight omitted from the Saint-Simon saga was the chapter of disintegration dating from the Civil War. Nothing of the burned manor, the pine house standing over its scattered brick, the shrunken acreage, the worn soil, and the social drop from “grandes mesdames” to country wives.

   1951, The Arizona Quarterly, page 42

   “B’coup d’piastre, lots of money,” he had boasted, proud he could spend so much. “The grande madame, she is not to live in the pigsty, eh?”

   1957, Charlton Laird, West of the River, New York: Bantam Books, page 26

   We ended up in a bar run by a truly ‘grande madame’ who danced, drink in hand, with her own girls.

   1976, Daniel Topolski, Muzungu: One Man’s Africa, Arlington Books, page 40

   Synonyms: grande dame