Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A female malefactor; a woman guilty of crime.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A female malefactor.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A woman who violates the law or does evil.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Latin male ("badly, evilly") + factrix ("doer (female)").
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Examples
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Compton shook his head doubtfully, and, considering the interview at an end turned to go, when instantly the ball knocked his hat off, and nothing of the malefactress was visible but a black eye sparkling with fun and mischief, and a bit of forehead wedged against the angle of the wall.
A Terrible Temptation A Story of To-Day Charles Reade 1849
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