Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being a matron; matronly character or condition.
  • noun A body of matrons; matrons collectively.

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

  • noun The state of a matron.
  • noun The collective body of matrons.

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

  • noun The collective body of matrons.
  • noun The state of being a matron.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • In looking at the class of counsel, and power, and wealth, and at the matronage of the land, amidst all the prudence and all the triviality, one asks, Where are they who represented genius, virtue, the invisible and heavenly world, to these?

    The Transcendentalist 2006

  • We were both on the point of retiring; when the Duchess, after a brief consultation with some of the surrounding matronage, made a sign to Mariamne to approach.

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 333, July 1843 Various

  • It spoke volumes for the purity and simplicity of the society that for years it had gone on thus, and no necessity for any matronage had been felt.

    Four Years in Rebel Capitals An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death T. C. DeLeon

  • Dolly has held her place among the matronage of Boston; her sons have graduated at Harvard, and her daughters have recalled to memory the bright eyes and youthful bloom of their mother.

    Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives 1878

  • Dolly had been committed for the day to the charge of Nabby, who should see that she took no harm, and engineer for her the best chances of seeing all that went on; while Mrs. Cushing, relieved of this care, took her seat quietly among the matronage of Poganuc and waited for the entrance of the procession.

    Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives 1878

  • In looking at the class of counsel, and power, and wealth, and at the matronage of the land, amidst all the prudence and all the triviality, one asks, Where are they who represented genius, virtue, the invisible and heavenly world, to these?

    Nature: Addresses and Lectures (1849) 1849

  • She was the pride of the matronage of Sparta, because of all our women Alithea was the most unsexed.

    Pausanias, the Spartan The Haunted and the Haunters, an Unfinished Historical Romance Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • It was all these, no doubt, that had so strengthened and enriched the love at first sight, which had shaken the equilibrium of his positive existence; and yet he now viewed all these as subordinate to the one image of mild decorous matronage into which wedlock was to transform the child of genius, longing for angel wings and unlimited space.

    The Parisians — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • She was one of those whom, encountered in the streets or in society, one might guess to be married, -- probably a young bride; for thus seen there was about her an air of dignity and of self-possession which suits well with the ideal of chaste youthful matronage; and in the expression of the face there was a pensive thoughtfulness beyond her years.

    The Parisians — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • It was all these, no doubt, that had so strengthened and enriched the love at first sight, which had shaken the equilibrium of his positive existence; and yet he now viewed all these as subordinate to the one image of mild decorous matronage into which wedlock was to transform the child of genius, longing for angel wings and unlimited space.

    The Parisians — Volume 05 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

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