lioness

Etymology

From Middle English leonesse, lyonesse, from Old French leonesse, lionesse; equivalent to lion + -ess.

noun

1. A female lion (animal).
   Residents on the south-western outskirts of Berlin are being urged to stay indoors after overnight sightings of a “loose, dangerous animal”, suspected to be an escaped lioness. 2023-07-20, Philip Oltermann, “Lioness believed to be on loose in Berlin”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
2. (figurative) A female lion (famous person regarded with interest and curiosity).
   The stories were a tremendous success; she was one of the leading lionesses of London literary society. 1877, The Contemporary Review, volume 29, page 1123
3. (Oxford University slang, obsolete) A female visitor to a student at Oxford, especially during commemoration week.
   When "lionesses" visiting Oxford for the gay doings of commemoration week spend a morning at Merton, they should look out for Antony Wood's mural tablet in the chapel, […] 1871, John Cordy Jeaffreson, Annals of Oxford, page 305
   "Now, boys, keep your eyes open, there must be plenty of lionesses about;" and thus warned, the whole load, including the cornopean player, were on the look-out for lady visitors, profanely called lionesses, all the way up the street. 1888, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, page 271