[f. VISITOR: see -ESS.]

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  1.  A female visitor. Also transf.

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1827.  E. W. Barnard, Swallow, i. The visitress of man, on earth She resteth not her flagging wing.

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1832.  Fraser’s Mag., V. 173. Our importunate visitress.

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1847.  C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, xxxii. Keenly, I fear, did the eye of the visitress pierce the young pastor’s heart.

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1869.  W. R. Greg, Lit. & Soc. Judgm. (ed. 2), 25. It is highly proper that by such an act at this time, you express your contradiction of our importunate visitress.

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  2.  spec. A woman who undertakes regular visiting of the poorer households of a district in order to help or advise.

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1861.  M. Arnold, Pop. Educ. France, 104. If she ceases to be a schoolmistress, she becomes a visitress or a nurse, or she gives her labours in the dispensary.

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1894.  Westm. Gaz., 5 Oct., 2/3. There is an understanding … that district visitresses have a … vested right to the society of curates.

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