Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A woman who is the eldest or senior member of a group.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun a female doyen.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A female doyen.
  • noun The senior, or eldest female member of a group.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a woman who is the senior member of a group

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, feminine of doyen, senior member; see doyen.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowing from French.

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Examples

  • Huffington Post's co-founder Arianna Huffington, is often described as the doyenne of the liberal political commentary in the United States and is a regular fixture on the cable TV news circuit opining on political news of the day.

    Reuters: Top News 2011

  • Huffington Post's co-founder Arianna Huffington, is often described as the doyenne of the liberal political commentary in the United States and is a regular fixture on the cable TV news circuit opining on political news of the day.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • Huffington Post's co-founder Arianna Huffington, is often described as the doyenne of the liberal political commentary in the United States and is a regular fixture on the cable TV news circuit opining on political news of the day.

    Reuters: Top News 2011

  • Huffington Post's co-founder Arianna Huffington, is often described as the doyenne of the liberal political commentary in the United States and is a regular fixture on the cable TV news circuit opining on political news of the day.

    Reuters: Top News 2011

  • Who actually thinks Andrea Mitchell is a "doyenne" of the left?

    "Fake interviews." Ann Althouse 2008

  • Who actually thinks Andrea Mitchell is a "doyenne" of the left?

    "Fake interviews." Ann Althouse 2008

  • Helen Thomas, Dean (or "doyenne") of the press corps, for the first time in several decades, was relegated to the third row and was not allowed to ask Bush a question (she's known to ask tough questions and would not play ball in the charade) 4.

    The Blog from Another Dimension 2009

  • The "doyenne" of the fawning press corps was also shown going after President Reagan on the trumped-up "Iran-Contra" case.

    Accuracy In Media 2009

  • Author John Tiffany sheds light on this fascinating doyenne in his new book, "Eleanor Lambert: Still Here."

    Fashion's First Lady Charlotte Moss 2011

  • Designer Christian Dior called Parker "the most beautiful woman in the world"; Eileen Ford, doyenne of modeling agents, once said of her: '' She was everybody's everything. ''

    Lesley M. M. Blume: ICONS OF STYLE SERIES: Suzy Parker, The World's First Supermodel (PHOTOS) Lesley M. M. Blume 2010

Comments

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  • see doyen

    January 4, 2007

  • "I vacillate wildly between a number of archetypes including, but not limited to, Muriel Spark witticism-trading doyenne, Mariella Frostrup charismatic socialite, brooding, intense Marianne Faithful visionary, and kleptomaniac Germaine Greer amateur upholsterer and ladies’ league darts champion. Woman, 43. Everything I just said was a lie. Apart from the bit about darts. And kleptomania. Great tits though."

    - London Review of Books, personal ad, 29 Dec 2007.

    December 30, 2007

  • From the article John recently linked on Errata, New York Times Magazine

    "That particular week in early November was a good one for country pop; landing ahead of Krauss on the charts, at No. 1, was Carrie Underwood, the “American Idol�? ingénue whose second album, “Carnival Ride,�? sold more than 500,000 copies in its first week. And Reba McEntire, the country doyenne, also reached No. 1 a few weeks before that with an album of duets."

    January 14, 2008

  • Granny Weatherwax is this for witches.

    December 4, 2012