[f. CLERGY + WOMAN, after clergyman.]
† 1. A woman belonging to a religious order; a nun; a priestess; CLERGESS 2. Obs.
1673. Baxter, Lett., in Answ. Dodwell, 87. I never took all the impotent persons, poor, and Widows in the Church, to be Clergy-men, and Clergy-women.
a. 1777. Foote, Trip Calais, II. i. (D.). I took her to be one of the clergywomen that belong to the place.
1842. Thackeray, Miss Tickletoby’s Lect., i. Wks. 1886, XXIV. 12. The ancient Britons had not only priests, but priestesses—that is clergywomen.
b. humorously. Cf. ‘old woman.’
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, xxx. 16. Several fellows … lodged an appeal … against Dr. Drybones … complaining of several arbitrary … practices of that reverend old clergy-woman.
2. A clergyman’s wife or other female relative (especially when she manages the parish). (Humorous or satirical.)
1820. Gentl. Mag., II. 150. He is a Clergyman more than a country Gentleman, and his flame a Clergywoman.
1862. Union, 11 April, 226. The harm which a clergywoman may do … is almost boundless.
1866. Mrs. Oliphant, Agnes, I. i. 10–11. From the clergy-women of Windholm down to the charwomen, the question was discussed with but one conclusion.
1867. Ch. Times, 6 July, 236/4. The clergywoman nuisance and the domestic ideal.
