mastership

Noun

mastership (countable and uncountable, plural masterships)

1. The state or office of a master.
   • [...] wee haue one in heauen who is maister of vs all, as sainct Paule sayeth: there will be no accepting of persons, there shall bee no more bondage or mastershippe for men too alleage before God.1574, Arthur Golding, transl., Sermons of Master John Calvin, upon the Booke of Job, London: Lucas Harison and George Byshop, Sermon 12
   • A Repentant Sinner is the Child of Grace, who being borne for the seruice of God, makes no reckoning of the mastershippe of the world [...]1616, Nicholas Breton, “A Repentant Sinner”, in The Good and the Badde, London: John Budge, page 36

   Synonyms:

   mastery

2. Mastery: dominion, superiority, control.
   • [...] you may begin to dig your ground in the beginning, so all along Winter till the very day of setting, and then you must keep it with weeding and hoing till it have got the mastership of the weeds and then it being a weed of it self wil destroy all other.1653, Walter Blith, The English Improver Improved, London: John Wright, Part 2, Chapter 36, p. 233
   • Passage to you, your shores, ye aged fierce enigmas!
     Passage to you, to mastership of you, ye strangling problems!1870, Walt Whitman, “Passage to India”, in Leaves of Grass, Washington, D.C., published 1871, page 14
3. Superior skill; expertness.
   • Where is your ancient courage? you were used
     To say extremity was the trier of spirits;
     That common chances common men could bear;
     That when the sea was calm all boats alike
     Show’d mastership in floating [...]c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
   • Some swallow every thing whole and unmix’d; so that it may rather be call’d a Heap, than a Pudding. Others are so Squeamish, the greatest Mastership in Cookery is requir’d to make the Pudding Palatable [...]1726, Henry Carey, A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling, London: J. Roberts, page 20

   Synonyms:

   mastery, masterfulness

4. (obsolete) Chief work; masterpiece.
5. A title of respect, sometimes ironic.
   • Thus hath Master More a full a[n]swere both to his scriptures which were to farre wrested out of their places and also to his awne apparent reasons. How be it if his mastershippe be not fullye pacyfyed let him more groundlye open his minde and bringe for his purposse all that he thinketh to make...c. 1531, John Frith, A Disputacion of Purgatorye, Antwerp: S. Cock, Book 2
   • How now, Signior Launce! what news with your mastership?c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...