[Cf. prec. and -ESS.] a. A female singer; a poetess. b. A female singing-bird.
1703. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), V. 303. A subscription … for Mrs. Seigniora, the Italian songstresse at the playhouses here.
1727–46. Thomson, Summer, 746. Through the soft silence of the listening night, The sober-suited songstress trills her lay.
1801. Wordsw., Cuckoo & Night., xlvi. I make a vow, That all this May I will thy songstress be.
1834. Lytton, Pompeii, I. ii. Either in compliment to the music or in compassion to the songstress.
1871. Athenæum, 8 July, 46/1. This sisterhood of songstresses is closed by the maiden lady, Joanna Baillie.
