governess
governess
Definition
gov·ern·ess (guv′ər nis)
noun
a woman employed in a private home to train and teach a child or children
governess
Synonyms
governess
Usage Examples
Converse of object
- become: Many young women reading Austen in her own lifetime would have become governesses, teaching the children of the rich.
- have: Their daughters might have a private governess to teach them at home.
- include: Recent films include The Governess, with Minnie Driver as a young 19th century Sephardi woman on the Isle of Skye.
- appoint: The Queen appointed a governess, Catherine Peebles, shortly before The Prince's fifth birthday.
- hire: Was he perhaps more foolish to hire the particular governess he did?
- want: Nobody wanted governesses nowadays, said the agencies, when these preliminaries were over; every-body sent their children to properly organized schools.
Adjective modifier
- Victorian: This is the cane which made the Victorian governess a figure to be instantly obeyed.
- French: She was known to be a " French governess " , whatever that title means.
- English: She was an English governess hired to teach King Mongkut's 67 children.
- new: The new governess is due to arrive on the same day.
- young: A young governess in London suspects that her employer who lives in the house next door is a killer.
- old: I sent for my old governess, and she, give her her due, acted the part of a true friend.
Modifies a noun
- cart: He is remembered locally for driving his governess cart drawn by a white pony.
Noun used with modifier
- nursery: From that day I ceased to be nursery governess, and became English teacher.
- family: He then became infatuated with the family governess and ran off with her to Paris in the summer of 1870.
Possessives
- child: His wife Dasha has learned of his affair with the children's governess.
Preposition: in
- family: She had become a daily governess in the family of a gentleman who had come to live in the neighborhood.
Preposition: of
- offspring: The governess of these offspring was Madame de Maintenon, who subsequently entered into a morganatic marriage with the monarch.
- child: She is the offspring from his second marriage with the governess of the children of the first.
Preposition: for
- child: Those who were fortunate may have become maids for wealthier families, others may have worked as governesses for rich children.
governess Quotes
A woman who cannot be a governess or a novel-writer mustfall backonthat poor littleneedle, theprimitiveand original handicraft of femininity.
Browse dictionary entries near governess
- governed
- governance
- governable
- govern
- gov
- gouty
- gout
- Gourmont
- gourmet
- gourmandise
