ˈtapstress
[f. tapster + -ess; formed after tapster had ceased to be feminine: cf. seamstress, songstress.]
A female tapster.
| 1631 Heywood 1st Pt. Maid of West i. Wks. 1874 II. 269 You are some tapstresse. 1667 Sir C. Lyttelton in Hatton Corr. (Camden) 52 Hee has married a dirty tapstresse. 1839 H. Ainsworth J. Shepherd iii. xiii, The tapstress was full of curiosity. |