Also 5 Amysone, 7 Amason. Pl. Amazons; also 4–7 Amazones. In 6–7 often accented amā·zon. [a. L. Amazon, a. Gr. Ἀμαζών, -όνα; explained by the Greeks from ἀ priv. + μαζ-ός a breast (in connection with the fable that they destroyed the right breast so as not to interfere with the use of the bow), but prob. pop. etym. of an unknown foreign word.]
1. pl. A race of female warriors alleged by Herodotus, etc., to exist in Scythia.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XV. xii. (1495), 492. They were callyd Amazones, that is vnderstonde wythout breste.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, XXVII. 10804. Of Amysones auntrus atlet the qwene.
1653. Cogan, Diod. Sic., 100. The Amazones inhabited … near to the river of Thermodon.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Suppl., s.v., The existence of the Amazons was called in question by Strabo.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, II. 110. Glanc’d at the legendary Amazon As emblematic of a nobler age.
2. Hence, A female warrior. lit. and fig.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 14. There were Amazons women of warre, in certaine Ilandes.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., IV. i. 106. Belike she minds to play the Amazon.
1702. Lond. Gaz., mmmdcccxl/2. About 200 Virgins in two Companies richly attired, many of them like Amazons, with Bows and Arrows.
1777. Robertson, Amer. (1783), III. 86. An opinion that … Amazons were to be found in this part of the New World.
1866. B. Taylor, Continents, 394. When Europe rose a stately Amazon.
3. transf. A very strong, tall or masculine woman.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 6, ¶ 2. I am far from wishing … the amazon … any diminution … of fame.
1767. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom., I. iii. 105. To the men an Amazon never fails to be forbidding.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xlvi. (1856), 425. Extremes meet in the Esquimaux of Greenland and Amazons of Paris.
† 4. The queen in chess. Obs.
1656. F. Beale, trans. Biochimo’s Roy. Game Chesse-play, 2. The next in height is the Queen or Amazon, who is placed in the fourth house from the corner of the field by the side of her King, and alwayes in her owne colour.
5. fig. in reference to the sexual habits of the Amazons.
1860. Vac. Tour., 137. These hinds are amazons, not vestals.
6. = AMAZON-ANT.
1880. Hunter, in Cassell’s Dict., s.v., These when hatched become a kind of pariah caste in the habitation of the Amazons.
7. Comb., as Amazon-dress, Amazon-like. Also AMAZON-ANT, -STONE, q.v.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 142. Her sword, which (Amazon-like) she euer ware about her.
1599. Storer, Wolsey (1826), 28. Her handmaids, in Amazon-like attire.
c. 1630. Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, Wks. 1711, 50/1. A country maid Amazone like did ride.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), II. 252. Whom you admire … in her amazon-dress, with a free manly air becoming her.
