Dictionary

bandmistress en · NOUN

Etymology

From band + mistress.

Meanings

1. The conductor, leader, or musical director of a band.
   • One of the Sisters is Superior, and she is assisted in the government by bandmistresses chosen from among the elder members, whose duty it is to watch lovingly and carefully over the members of their bands. 1877, Charles Fuge Lowder, Twenty-one Years in S. George's Mission, An Account of Its Origin, Progress, and Works of Charity, page 57:
   • Past us marched a female band in white, a female bandmistress at the fore. 1985, Arthur Crew Inman, The Inman Diary, A Public and Private Confession · Volumes 1-2, page 422:
   • One is constantly seeing advertisements of missing bags, and purses, and lockets, and jewellery, dogs, and sometimes children, but never a lost bandmistress! 1903, Haggerston S. Saviour's Priory, Memories of a Sister of S. Saviour's Priory, page 338:

Forms