lasses

Noun

lass (plural lasses)

1. A girl; also (by extension), a young woman.
   • Come and dance, ye lads and lasses!

   Synonyms:

   babe, bint, bird, cake, chick, colleen, cutty, damoiselle, damsel, elrig

   1. (specifically) A female member of the Salvation Army; a hallelujah lass.
      • Jenny Hill, a pale, overwrought, pretty Salvation lass of 18, comes in through the yard gate, leading Peter Shirley, a half hardened, half worn-out elderly man, weak with hunger.1905, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Major Barbara”, in John Bull’s Other Island and Major Barbara: Also How He Lied to Her Husband, London: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1907, →OCLC, Act II, page 216
2. (Geordie, Wearside, especially) A sweetheart.
   • But firſt him ſeemed fit, that vvounded Knight / To viſite, after this nights perillous paſſe, / And to ſalute him, if he vvere in plight, / And eke [also] that Lady his faire louely laſſe.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 14, page 388

   Synonyms:

   babber, babe, precious, bae, baby, babycakes, bubba, bully, buttercup, cabbage

3. (Northern England, Scotland) A female servant; a maid, a maidservant.
   • […] I'll tell ye that after we are done wi' our supper, for it will may be no be sae weel to speak about it while that lang-lugged limmer o' a lass is gaun flisking in and out o' the room.1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter VI, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and...
4. (Scotland, familiar) A term of address for a woman, or a female animal.
   • As fair art thou, my bonie laſs, / So deep in luve am I; / And I will luve thee ſtill, my Dear, / Till a' the ſeas gang dry.[1794, Robert Burns, “A Red, Red Rose”, in Songs, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume IV, Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, published 1869, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 210