[f. as prec. + MISTRESS sb.] A woman (or something personified as female) who assigns tasks, or apportions labor.
1603. H. Crosse, Vertues Commw. (1878), 150. His taske-mistresse Iuno was faine to crie out, Defessa sum iubendo.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. ix. 245. You will consider yourself as the task-mistress, and the … female servants as so many negroes.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, XI. xvii. For which, O willing slaves to Custom old, Severe taskmistress, ye your hearts have sold.
1899. Crockett, Kit Kennedy, 212. Kit knew that his task-mistress was listening.
1906. Mary Higgs, Glimpses into the Abyss, vii. 261. Already some conception that we were under a hard task-mistress was dawning upon us.
Mod. WEHD.com is an unrelenting taskmistress.
