Also 8–9 vot’ress. [var. of VOTARESS, after forms like enchantress, protectress.] A female votary.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 125. His mother was a Votresse of my Order. Ibid., ii. 164. The imperiall Votresse passed on, In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
1607. Barley-Breake (1877), 21. What Nymph, what Nun, or what disdainefull Votresse, Shall not plucke downe and strike to thee the Sayle?
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 105. Ceres, the goddesse of husbandry, whose votresses none but chast women durst presume to be.
1700. Dryden, Pal. & Arc., III. 225. Thy Votress from my tender Years I am.
1739. Corr. betw. C’tess Hartford & C’tess Pomfret (1805), I. 149. I do not wonder that you shed tears at the profession of the unhappy votress at Genoa, since I could scarcely restrain mine at the recital of her sufferings.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 18, ¶ 6. Every one … has the pleasure … of hoping to be numbered among the votresses of harmony.
1825. Scott, Talism., iv. Surprise at the sudden appearance of these votresses, and the visionary manner in which they moved past him.
1866. J. B. Rose, trans. Ovid’s Met., 27. A votress of the power Ortygian.
