[f. prec. + -ESS.] A female speaker; a woman acting as a president or Speaker.
1781. Westm. Mag., IX. 16. Here the ‘Speakeress’ was again obliged to call ‘to order.’
1831. Lincoln Herald, 14 Oct., 3/6. The dowager Duchess of Richmond is the Speakeress, and Lady Jersey first clerk at the table.
1831. Carlyle, in Froude, Life (1882), II. 177. I sate directly behind a speakeress with tongues.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 4 Feb., 2/1. With men and women on the Treasury Bench, and, perhaps, a Speakeress in the chair.
