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/ˈæb.ɪs/ · noun
A female superior or governess of a nunnery, or convent of nuns, having the same authority over the nuns which the abbots have over the monks..
The abbess was always after the nuns to keep the convent immaculately clean.
Why laſt night, as Colonel Kill'em, Sir William Weezy, Lord Frederick Foretop, and I were careleſsly ſliding the Ranelagh round, picking our teeth, after a damn'd muzzy dinner at Boodle's, who ſhould trip by but an abbeſs, well known about town, with a ſmart little nun in her ſuite.
So an old Abbess for the rattling Rakes, / A tempting dish of human nature makes, / And dresses up a luscious Maid: / I rather should have said, indeed, undresses, / To please a youth's unsanctified caresses.
"I mean to inform you," answered the Oxonian, with a grin on his face, "that those three nymphs, who have so much dazzled your optics, are three nuns, and the plump female is Mother .... of great notoriety, but generally designated the Abbess of .... Her residence is at no great distance from one of the royal palaces; and she is distinguished for her bold ingenuous line of conduct in the profession which she has chosen to adopt; so much so, indeed, that she eclipses all her competitors in infamy."
Use abbess when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Abbess means A female superior or governess of a nunnery, or convent of nuns, having the same authority over the nuns which the abbots have over the monks..
Common synonyms include mother superior, bawd, Covent Garden abbess, lady abbess.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
The abbess was always after the nuns to keep the convent immaculately clean.
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