Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen noun: a working-class woman, typically dressed in a shawl, carrying one or more babies, and working as a market trader.

Noun

Mary Ellen (plural Mary Ellens)

(UK, historical, Liverpool) A working-class woman, typically dressed in a shawl, carrying one or more babies, and working as a market trader.
- Young and middle-aged women often caring for large families were known as 'Mary Ellens'. They dressed in a most distinctive fashion with large black shawls draped over their shoulders and fastened at the middle. The shawl formed a large pocket under each arm; often one would hold a baby, the other...2010, Tim Parker, Signalman Jones, page 18
- Luke staggered blindly down the street, almost bumping into an old woman in black with a shawl drawn close about her head and shoulders—a Mary Ellen they called them round here.2010, Anne Baker, Goodbye Liverpool

Young and middle-aged women often caring for large families were known as 'Mary Ellens'.2010, Tim Parker, Signalman Jones, page 18:
Dad had just laughed when Rose said she wouldn't mind being a Mary Ellen but Mam had tightened her mouth and sniffed.2011, Katie Flynn, Rose of Tralee:

plural	Mary Ellens

What does Mary Ellen mean?: Mary Ellen means a working-class woman, typically dressed in a shawl, carrying one or more babies, and working as a market trader.
How do you use Mary Ellen in a sentence?: Young and middle-aged women often caring for large families were known as 'Mary Ellens'.
What part of speech is Mary Ellen?: Mary Ellen is a noun.
What is the plural of Mary Ellen?: The plural of Mary Ellen is Mary Ellens.

Adapted from Wiktionary: Mary Ellen (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “Mary Ellen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mary_ellen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.