Madamnoun

• 1

  A polite form of address and title, abbreviated Mdm, used before a (usually middle-aged) adult or elderly woman's surname, full name or given name if she does not have a family name.

madamnoun/ˈmædəm/

• 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.
• 2

  The mistress of a household.

• 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

  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

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

madamverb/ˈmædəm/

• 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.
• 2

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

  • The writer has never accepted the criterion “will it make money?” He has known that the application of such an irrelevancy to any of the arts and sciences resulted in sterility, error and waste. But what is more important, the writer will not pretend that this is not so. He will not pretend that the money criterion is a valid point of reference. The result has been that the writer has been kicked around from furnished room to the luxurious offices of advertising agencies and those palaces of prostitution which are madamed by public relations counsellors.
  • 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); […]