priestesses

Noun

priestess (plural priestesses)

1. A woman with religious duties and responsibilities in certain religions.
   • Sir Knight, said she (whose looks, language, and gesture create strange thoughts within me) be pleased to know, that I am (I will not say the first) of those Ladies of Honour, who wait upon the high-born, illustrious, and refulgent Maulkina, Daughter to the high and mighty Prince Paraclet, Prince...1656, Samuel Holland, Don Zara Del Fogo, London, retrieved 24 Nov 2019, page 118

   Synonyms:

   gythja, kahuna, mamaloi, mambo, miko

2. (slur, uncommon) A female Christian priest or minister, typically in a Protestant, Old Catholic, or independent Catholic denomination.
   • The “extenuating circumstances” set forth by the Rev. Mr. Higgins certainly bring home not only the nature of Bishop Hall's problem but its cause; however, the problems of parish life under a deaconess are insignificant in comparison with the very grave issues raised by the ordination of a...1944 November 19, “Letters”, in The Living Church, volume 109, number 21, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Morehouse-Gorham Co., page 2
3. (colloquial, obsolete) A priest’s wife.
   • As ſoon as they were parted, the Prieſteſs flounced out of the Houſe, call'd for her Coachman, and bid him put in his Horſes, for away would ſhe go […]1709, Delarivier Manley, Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality, of Both Sexes, from the New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean, 2nd edition, London, →OCLC, page 158

   Synonyms:

   presbytera, presbyteress

See all 4 meanings of priestess