duenna

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duenna

(djuːˈɛnə)
n
(Professions) (in Spain and Portugal, etc) an elderly woman retained by a family to act as governess and chaperon to young girls
[C17: from Spanish dueña, from Latin domina lady, feminine of dominus master]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

du•en•na

(duˈɛn ə, dyu-)

n., pl. -nas.
1. (in Spain and Portugal) an older woman serving as escort or chaperon of a young lady.
2. a governess.
[1660–70; < Sp]
du•en′na•ship`, n.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.duenna - a woman chaperon
Portugal, Portuguese Republic - a republic in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula; Portuguese explorers and colonists in the 15th and 16th centuries created a vast overseas empire (including Brazil)
Espana, Kingdom of Spain, Spain - a parliamentary monarchy in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula; a former colonial power
chaperon, chaperone - one who accompanies and supervises a young woman or gatherings of young people
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
Mentioned in
References in classic literature
But, as I was saying, Richard, or was about to say, my daughter has been allowed to rust; her aunt was a mere duenna; hence, in parenthesis, Richard, her distrust of me; my nature and that of the duenna are poles asunder - poles!
"That is true," said Maritornes; "and, faith, I relish hearing these things greatly too, for they are very pretty; especially when they describe some lady or another in the arms of her knight under the orange trees, and the duenna who is keeping watch for them half dead with envy and fright; all this I say is as good as honey."
Here I am, till my duenna finishes her business and fetches me.
No want of understrappers: my sister desires her love, and hopes to be admitted into the company, and will be happy to take the part of any old duenna or tame confidante, that you may not like to do yourselves."
The other, of mature age, seemed to have the former one under her charge, and was cold, dry and yellow -- the true type of a duenna or a devotee.
Looking down, the moon, your devoted duenna, is wrapped in her dark mantilla.
(13) At Blithedale, Zenobia is aware that Priscilla is entering the same perilous phase of development and offers herself as a maternal figure, one that she lacked in adolescence: "[Y]ou are getting to be so very pretty that you absolutely need a duenna; as I am older than you, and have had my own little experience of life, and think myself exceedingly sage, I intend to fill the place of a maiden-aunt" (3: 77).
Accompanying Bira had been his older cousin, Prince Chulachakrabongse, his quieter, more restrained duenna in the curious West.
The libretto was by Carlo Francesco Badini of Turin who openly acknowledged that he had based this on The Duenna by Sheridan, to whom he dedicated it.
The trio of scheming women was completed by the accomplished comic actor-singer of Larisa Diadkova as The Duenna.
Dashed off to hear two acts of Prokofieff's The Duenna (57) at the Riga Opera.
(10) Between the Jew Bill and Cumberland's comedy in 1794, there had been a host of rabidly anti-Jewish plays, including Richard Brinsley Sheridan's now forgotten ballad-opera The Duenna. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice was also revived and regularly performed at Drury Lane, where actor Charles Macklin famously represented Shylock year after year as a figure of "fiend-like malice, outrageous cruelty" and "diabolical joy in human misery." (11) As a result, The Monthly Review pointed out in 1795 that "few people perhaps now hear a Jew mentioned, without thinking of the cruel Shylock or the cunning little Isaac," (12) the latter being the Jew in Sheridan's Duenna.
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