Dictionary

princess-ship en · NOUN

Etymology

From princess + -ship.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The dignity, rank, or office of a princess.
   • Remembering her own formative first glimpse of Hepburn, she repositions a starlet now thought of as old-world as instead a proto-feminist, “abdicating her princess-ship” to adventure through Rome on a scooter. 2020 November 25, Danny Leigh, “Audrey — the driven career and sad life of Audrey Hepburn”, in Financial Times, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2025:
   • Near-synonym: princessdom
   • Nan gets out unassisted, feeling severely that her days of princess-ship are over; and she has redeemed her box, and the train is off again ere any one asks whither she is going. 1875, Blackwood's Magazine, volume 118, page 144:
   • In the masterless state of her heart, she might have deemed the princess-ship tempting enough to warrant the venture. 1872, Helen Cameron: from Grub to Butterfly, volume 1, page 86:
   • Héctor Elizondo’s Joe might be the best perk of Mia’s princess-ship: The head of Genovian security never panics; he gut-checks Clarisse when he thinks she’s being too harsh on her granddaughter; and, in a major wingman move, swoops in mid-thunderstorm with a limo to escort a soaked Mia to her inaugural ball. 2020 June 30, Sarah Bahr, “Comfort Viewing: Three Reasons I Love ‘The Princess Diaries’”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2020:
   • “[…] I cannot get in, as the door is barred and bolted, and I am too mild to employ force; but I have taken the liberty to torment her a little with my optical glass, that she may know I am her lord and master in spite of her imaginary princess-ship.” 1826, Specimens of German Romance: Master Flea:
   • A woman may take some comfort in being a princess, because she can set the fashions, and become the mother of kings; but, on the other hand, she can seldom marry her true-love, or have her own way in the training of her children; she can never prefer her friends to honor, or give a hearty snub to her enemies, for fear of losing her popularity. After all, I think, if women had their choice of position in the world before they entered it, the princess-ships would go a-begging. 1874, Ella W[illiams] Thompson, “From Edinburgh to London”, in Beaten Paths; or, A Woman’s Vacation, Boston, Mass.: Lee and Shepard; New York, N.Y.: Lee, Shepard and Dillingham, →OCLC, page 61:

Forms

Coordinates

princeship · kingship · kingdom · queenship · queendom · princedom

Synonyms

princessdom