Now rare. Also 5 confortouresse. [a. OF. conforteresse, fem. of confortère: see -ESS.] A female comforter.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, I. cxlii. (1869), 73. Ladi, quod j, ther of shule ye be leche and confortouresse.
1491. Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de W., 1495), I. xlii. 69 b/2. Our lady, Tresorye of grace, comfortresse of desolate.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. (1594), 453. To give him [Adam] a wife, for a faithfull companion, a comfortresse of his life.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, III. vii. 80. To be your comfortresse, and to preserve you.
1766. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom., Ded. 1. The Comfortress of Affliction!
1868. R. A. Coffin, trans. Liguori’s Glories of Mary, 81. O comfortress of the afflicted.
