▪ I. ˈvotress1
Also 8–9 vot'ress.
[var. of votaress, after forms like enchantress, protectress.]
A female votary.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 125 His mother was a Votresse of my Order. Ibid. ii. 164 The imperiall Votresse passed on, In maiden meditation, fancy-free. 1607 Barley-Breake (1877) 21 What Nymph, what Nun, or what disdainefull Votresse, Shall not plucke downe and strike to thee the Sayle? 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 105 Ceres, the goddesse of husbandry, whose votresses none but chast women durst presume to be. 1700 Dryden Pal. & Arc. iii. 225 Thy Votress from my tender Years I am. 1739 Corr. betw. C'tess Hartford & C'tess Pomfret (1805) I. 149, I do not wonder that you shed tears at the profession of the unhappy votress at Genoa, since I could scarcely restrain mine at the recital of her sufferings. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 18 ¶6 Every one..has the pleasure..of hoping to be numbered among the votresses of harmony. 1825 Scott Talism. iv, Surprise at the sudden appearance of these votresses, and the visionary manner in which they moved past him. 1866 J. B. Rose tr. Ovid's Met. 27 A votress of the power Ortygian. |
▪ II. ˈvotress2
[f. voter + -ess.]
A female voter.
| 1894 Daily Tel. 23 Nov. 5/4 The votress insisted that she must plump for ‘Annie Sinclair’. 1895 N. Amer. Rev. Sept. 267 Unable to conjecture what the results may be when women shall have become not only votresses but..alderwomen. |