Dictionary

chapess en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree English chap Late Latin -issader. Old French -essebor. Middle English -esse English -ess English chapess From chap + -ess.

Meanings

1. (UK, informal) A female chap; a woman.
   • Those revered as saints are usually very peculiar chaps and chapesses who succeeded in refusing life just short of actually killing themselves […] 2006, Mark Simpson, Saint Morrissey:
   • My friends are the undergraduates, chaps and chapesses, and as long as I can pour good wine down their gullets and listen into the small hours […] 1990, Samuel Gorley Putt, Wings of a Man's Life:
   • […] so naturally, we simply couldn't afford to have chaps and chapesses tying the knot and then not having babies after all that fuss. 2005, James Hawes, Speak for England:

Forms