Link Centre Dictionary

lady

UK/ˈleɪ.di/ US/ˈleɪ.di/ very common informal slang uk

noun

1.

a polite name for any woman

  • “a nice lady at the library helped me”
2.

a woman of refinement

  • “a chauffeur opened the door of the limousine for the grand lady”
Synonyms
3.

a woman of the peerage in Britain

Synonyms
Antonyms

Origin

From Middle English lady, laddy, lafdi, lavedi, from Old English hlǣfdīġe (“mistress of a household, wife of a lord, lady”, literally “bread-kneader”), from hlāf (“bread, loaf”) + dǣġe (“kneader”), related to Old English dǣġe (“maker of dough”) (whence dey (“dairymaid”)).

Phrases

  • American painted lady
  • Asian lady beetle
  • bag lady
  • Bankside lady
  • bearded lady
  • black lady
  • bug lady
  • cat lady
  • Our Lady

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.