painted Jezebel
painted Jezebel noun: a Jezebel; an evil, scheming, shameless or immoral woman, especially one who uses physical attractiveness to evil ends.
Noun
painted Jezebel (plural painted Jezebels)
- A Jezebel; an evil, scheming, shameless or immoral woman, especially one who uses physical attractiveness to evil ends.
- [I]n her absence Olive might give any version of her she chose. "I have told him you are a radical, and you may tell him, if you like, that I am a painted Jezebel."1885–1886, Henry James, The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC
- Delias hyparete, a species of butterfly of the family Pieridae.
Forms of painted Jezebel
| plural | painted Jezebels |
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Origin of painted Jezebel
From Jezebel, the Phoenician princess and Queen of Ancient Israel who appears in the Old Testament (1 Kings). She incited heresy and lured the Jews away from their God and back to idols. Before her death, knowing that she was soon to be slain, she took the time to fix her hair and paint her face. From the 16th century, some people believed that makeup was worn only by immoral women; hence the wearing of makeup implied immorality.
Questions about painted Jezebel
- What does painted Jezebel mean?
- Painted Jezebel means a Jezebel; an evil, scheming, shameless or immoral woman, especially one who uses physical attractiveness to evil ends.
- What part of speech is painted Jezebel?
- Painted Jezebel is a noun.
- What is the plural of painted Jezebel?
- The plural of painted Jezebel is painted Jezebels.
Words near painted Jezebel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: painted Jezebel (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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Cite this entry: “painted Jezebel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/painted_jezebel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.