anchoress

Etymology 1

From Middle English ankres, ankerisse, anchoryse; equivalent to anchor + -ess.

noun

  1. A female anchorite. A woman who chooses to withdraw from the world to live a solitary life of prayer and contemplation.
    … and advises the anchoresses to take on the basic religious vows … 2003, Yōko Wada, “A Genre of Ancrene Wisse”, in A Companion to Ancrene Wisse, DS Brewer, page 39

Etymology 2

From anchor + -ess.

noun

  1. (informal) An anchorwoman.
    Williams was co-hosting in place of Katie Couric, a move some have speculated was meant to deprive the possible next anchoress of the CBS Evening News the prime time exposure. 2006-02-11, James Poniewozik, “Live from Turin—Sorry, Torino—It's NBC”, in Time, retrieved 2012-01-25
    Mr. Thompson reportedly booted executives off a cross-continental Citigroup flight to be alone with the impeccably brunette anchoress. 2007-04-16, Max Abelson, “Sold! 'Money Honey,' Hubby Buy $6.5 M. East Side Townhouse”, in New York Observer, retrieved 2012-01-25

Attribution / Disclaimer All definitions come directly from Wiktionary using the Wiktextract library. We do not edit or curate the definitions for any words, if you feel the definition listed is incorrect or offensive please suggest modifications directly to the source (wiktionary/anchoress), any changes made to the source will update on this page periodically.