madam

noun

1. 1

   A polite form of address for a woman or lady.

   Mrs Grey wondered if the outfit she was trying on made her look fat. The sales assistant just said, “It suits you, madam”.

   Later, Mrs Grey was sitting in her favourite tea shop. “Would madam like the usual cream cakes and patisserie with her tea?” the waitress asked.

   “Nothing, madam, but a tumbler of wine with a little water—thank you, madam. Mesdames, great events have occurred since I left you.”

   I leaned on the hoe, in classic pose, and watched the cowbird try to bust his buttons in that agonizing split whistle which is his serenade to the madam. Perhaps I should say to the mesdames, for this fellow is the Don Juan of the feathered world, with no moral standards and a distinct aversion to anything that resembles domestic ties.

2. 2

   The mistress of a household.

3. 3

   A conceited or quarrelsome girl.

   Selina kept pushing and shoving during musical chairs. The nursery school teacher said she was a bad-tempered little madam.

4. 4

   slangA woman who runs a brothel, particularly one that specializes in finding prostitutes for rich and important clients.

   After she grew too old to work as a prostitute, she became a madam.

   I sneaked into the house and stole my sister’s Hudson-seal fur coat out of the closet, then I beat it down to a whorehouse and sold it to the madam for $150.

5. 5

   slangA hated or contemptuous woman; used as a general term of abuse

verb

1. 1

   To address as "madam".

   Madam me no Madam, but learn to retrench your vvords; and ſay Mam; as yes Mam, and no Mam, as other Ladies VVomen do. Madam! 'tis a year in pronouncing.

   In Houſes where great Numbers of theſe Wretches are lodg’d it is both merry and melancholy to hear what a Maiding and Madamming there is all Day long, from the top of the Houſe to the bottom.

   Don’t madam me, — I can’t bear none of your lip service. I’m a plain-spoken woman, that’s what I am, and I like other people’s tongues to be as plain as mine.

   He bowed to me, he madamed me, he was throughout as gentlemanlike and respectful as I had ever found him when we met at Old Harbour House or in Old Harbour Town.

2. 2

   rareTo be a madam; to run (a brothel).

   Margaret Long’s freudianized Louisville does not have the local color of the famous Lexington bordello madamed by the late Belle Breezing (in the process of being fictionized); […]

   I DIDN’T set out to be a madam any more than Arthur Michael Ramsey, when he was a kid, set out to be Archbishop of Canterbury. Things just happened to both of us, I guess. […] Madaming is the sort of thing that happens to you—like getting a battlefield commission or becoming the Dean of Women at Stanford University.

   Ray [Aghayan] also used warm golden colors for the friendly whorehouse madamed by Melina Mercouri.

   I’m in business for money. Madaming is the perfect place to meet presidents of large corporations who give me stock tips. Who gets the first news on new offers—me—sitting in my house of joy. I get a financial education which leads to money, and I like the men.

Forms

plural

madams, mesdames

past tense

madamed, madammed

past participle

madamed, madammed

present participle

madaming, madamming

third person singular

madams