Webster's English Dictionary

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mistress

mis.tress \'mis-tr*s; as an abbreviated title .mis-*z, -*s, esp South 
   .miz-*z\ n [ME maistresse, fr. MF, fr. OF, fem. of maistre master - more 
   at], -*s, (.)miz, or before given names (.)misMASTER 1: a woman who has 
   power, authority, or ownership : as  1a: the female head of a household  
   1b: a woman who employs or supervises servants  1c: a woman who possesses 
   or controls something  1d: a woman who is in charge of a school or other 
   establishment  1e: a woman of the Scottish nobility having a status 
   comparable to that of  a master chiefly Brit  2a: a female teacher or tutor 
    2b: a woman who has achieved mastery in some field  3: a country or state 
   having supremacy over others  4: something personified as female that rules 
   or directs  5a: a woman with whom a man habitually cohabits without being 
   married to he r archaic  5b: SWEETHEART  6: - used archaically as a title 
   prefixed to the name of a married or unm arried woman and now superseded by 
   the contracted forms Mrs., or in the plural Mesdames, for a married woman 
   and Miss for an unmarried woman