[f. SUPERIOR sb. + -ESS.] A female superior; the head of a convent or order of nuns; a mother superior. Also superioress-general.
1671. Woodhead, St. Teresa, II. iv. 25. The charge of being Superioress.
1745. A. Butler, Lives Saints, B. Colette (1821), III. 40. He constituted her superioress-general of the whole Order of St. Clare. Ibid., S. Frances, 94. Chosen superioress of her congregation.
1827. Doyle, in W. J. Fitz-Patrick, Life (1880), II. 27. Novices are not permitted to invite any person, unless expressly desired to do so by the superioress.
1890. J. Brenan, in 38th Rep. Dept. Sci. & Art (1891), 41. The Superioress, Convent of Mercy, Newry.
