madonna

Substantiv

1. 1

   Alternative letter-case form of Madonna. A representation of the Virgin Mary.

   Glogau Stat.—Inns: Deutsches Haus; Westphal’s Hotel. A fortress of the 2nd rank on the l. bank of the Oder, 17,000 Inhab. The Dom upon an island dates from 1120, and contains a madonna by Cranach, sen., his masterpiece.

   Giacomo Medica’s (1965) sample of the 697 most important Marian sanctuaries in Italy gives us some idea of the number of Italian madonnas in Italy as a whole.

   When it has not whitened them, the church has attempted to assimilate dark or black madonnas; this is evident in the many Italian madonnas described as bruna.

   The darkening effects of being buried, especially outdoors, sounds plausible in a few such cases, but if candle smoke is to account for all the other dark madonnas, as the Church asserts, why would not the entire statue have become black?

2. 2

   Alternative letter-case form of Madonna. A morally pure woman.

   For centuries, madonnas provided legitimate children and social respectability; whores, illegitimate pleasure.

   […] whether women’s liberation might be better achieved by rejecting the traditional dichotomization of women into good girls/bad girls, madonnas/whores, and hence refusing to organize one's sexual desire and pleasure in terms of the repressive and passive roles that are traditionally ascribed to female sexuality within dominant discourses (the so-called ‘agency’ model).

3. 3

   Alternative letter-case form of Madonna. A lady.

   […] hee lay laſt night in ſuch a madonnas chamber, tother night he lay in ſuch a Counteſſes couch, to night he lies in ſuch a Ladies cloſet, […]

   A Hollywood madonna […] “Gentlemen: This is my Christmas madonna …”

Substantiv

1. 1

   A one-footed lien-to-tail trick, where the front foot is taken off and kicked out straight down behind the board.

Formen

Plural

madonnas