Definitions

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

  • noun A woman who receives or entertains guests in a social or official capacity.
  • noun A woman who manages an inn or hotel.
  • noun A woman who is the emcee or interviewer on a radio or television program.
  • noun A woman who is employed to greet and assist patrons, as in a restaurant.
  • noun A woman who is employed to dance with customers in a dance hall or nightclub.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A female host; a woman who entertains guests; especially, a woman who keeps an inn.

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

  • noun A female host; a woman who hospitably entertains guests at her house.
  • noun A woman who entertains guests for compensation; a female innkeeper.

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

  • noun A female host.
  • noun A female innkeeper.
  • noun Stewardess: a woman steward on an airplane.
  • noun a bar hostess or bargirl, a paid, female companion offering conversation and in some cases sex.

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

  • noun a woman innkeeper
  • noun a woman host
  • noun a woman steward on an airplane

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English hostesse, from Middle French hostesse, from Old French ostesce, made up of oste ("host") + -esce ("feminine marker").

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