visitress
(ˈvɪzɪtrɪs)
[f. visitor: see -ess.]
1. A female visitor. Also transf.
| 1827 E. W. Barnard Swallow i, The visitress of man, on earth She resteth not her flagging wing. 1832 Fraser's Mag. V. 173 Our importunate visitress. 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre xxxii, Keenly, I fear, did the eye of the visitress pierce the young pastor's heart. 1869 W. R. Greg Lit. & Soc. Judgm. (ed. 2) 25 It is highly proper that by such an act at this time, you express your contradiction of our importunate visitress. |
2. spec. A woman who undertakes regular visiting of the poorer households of a district in order to help or advise.
| 1861 M. Arnold Pop. Educ. France 104 If she ceases to be a schoolmistress, she becomes a visitress or a nurse, or she gives her labours in the dispensary. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 5 Oct. 2/3 There is an understanding..that district visitresses have a..vested right to the society of curates. |