Word.ws English Dictionary

ancient marineress

ancient marineress noun: an old woman who bears some resemblance to Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, especially one who has an unfortunate history or insists on telling her story.

Noun

ancient marineress (plural ancient marineresses)

  1. An old woman who bears some resemblance to Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, especially one who has an unfortunate history or insists on telling her story.
    • Further than this mystic demonstration none of them had gotten, so far, for Mrs. Parker kept her glittering eye on them like an Ancient Marineress and “The boldest held his breath for a time!”1879 March 5, [Rose Terry Cooke], “Dr. Parkers’ Patty”, in Nanaimo Free Press, volume V, number 92, Nanaimo, B.C.
    • Here’s to the health of my respected ancient mariner-ess—a veritable old maid, all forlorn, whose legacy is a long time coming, but sure to get here some time.1881 October 14, “Aunt Sarah’s Fortune”, in Valley Sentinel, volume 18, number 23, Carlisle, Pa., page 1

Examples of ancient marineress in a sentence

  • “But the ancient marineress here—” “Sit down,” commanded the philosopher.1904 June 18, “The Girl Philosopher”, in Marion Daily Star, volume XXVII, number 173, Marion, Ohio, page six:
  • Riedel, Holland, Va., to which he gave the title, The Ancient Marineress.1917 March 1, The Herald of Gospel Liberty, volume CIX, number 9, page 212 (20):
  • Unable to shake off this Ancient Marineress, he took her into his office, opened the huge ribbon tied manuscript, and found only blank pages.1953 April 19, Fanny Butcher, “The Literary Spotlight”, in Chicago Sunday Tribune, volume CXII, number 16, part 4, page 11:
  • It was an old, old woman, an Ancient Marineress of the desert, and she was cracking lice in the head of a small boy wrapped in a goatskin.1956 August, “Cave-Paintings and Camels”, in Blackwood’s Magazine, volume 280, number 1690, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons...

Forms of ancient marineress

pluralancient marineresses

Origin of ancient marineress

A reference to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in which an old mariner corners a reluctant wedding guest to tell a story of a horrific voyage.

Questions about ancient marineress

What does ancient marineress mean?
Ancient marineress means an old woman who bears some resemblance to Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, especially one who has an unfortunate history or insists on telling her story.
How do you use ancient marineress in a sentence?
“But the ancient marineress here—” “Sit down,” commanded the philosopher.
What part of speech is ancient marineress?
Ancient marineress is a noun.
What is the plural of ancient marineress?
The plural of ancient marineress is ancient marineresses.

Words near ancient marineress in the dictionary

  1. Ancient Greeks
  2. ancient history
  3. Ancient Kangleipak
  4. ancient lights
  5. Ancient Macedonian
  6. ancient marineress
  7. ancient marineresses
  8. ancient monument
  9. ancient monuments
  10. Ancient Near East
  11. ancient Near Eastern

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ancient marineress (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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