Forms: 2–4 emperice, 3–8 emperess(e, 4 (amperesse), emperis(e, -isse, empiresse, 5 emprice, -ise, 5–7 empresse, 7– empress. Also 4–5 imperes, -ice. [ME. emperesse, a. OF. emperesse, fem. of emperere EMPEROR (late L. type *imperatorissa). OF. had also empereriz, -is, = Pr. emperairitz, Sp. emperatriz:—L. imperātrīcem, and various mixed forms, as emperice, amperice, some of which occur in ME.]
1. The consort of an emperor. Also, a female sovereign having the rank equivalent to that of an emperor.
1154. O. E. Chron., an. 1140. Þe hæfde ben Emperice.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 440. He louede hyr, vor heo was eyr & hey emperesse. Ibid., 474. The nexte ȝer ther after the Amperesse Mold Wende out of this liue.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 5343. And Melion … was crouned emperice.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., VII. (1520), 79 b/1. Wyllyam … helde warre agaynst Maude the empresse.
1559. Bp. Scot, in Strype, Ann. Ref., I. II. App. vii. 16. The Emperesse Theodora, that then was.
1704. Addison, Italy (1733), 236. Among the Emperesses.
a. 1745. Swift, Wks. (1768), IV. 301. The earl of Chester … commanded there for the empress.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 132/2. Napoleon … crowned his wife as empress.
1888. Times, 19 Dec., 7/4. The Queen and the Empress Frederick … were compelled to delay their departure from the Royal borough.
Mod. In 1876 Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.
2. A female potentate exercising supreme or absolute power. Chiefly transf. and fig.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 20801. Of heuen and erth … scho es quene, Bath imperice and heind leuedi.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth. (1868), 109. For felonie is emperisse and flowreþ ful of rycchesse.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 171. Thi moder is of helle emprise.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., II. iii. 40. Harke Tamora, the Empresse of my Soule.
1634. Habington, Castara, 30. The pale-faced Empresse of the night Lent in her chaste increase her borrowed light.
1682. Dryden, Mac Flecknoe, 87. Now Empress Fame had publisht the renown Of Shadwells coronation.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, II. i. 3. Who … seemed the Empress of the scene.
1832. Blackw. Mag., Feb., 353/1. The British capital has been called … the empress of all cities.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, v. (1878), 73. Yonder empress throned at the window of that humblest mud cottage.
3. Comb. a. appositive.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal, 93. Before his bed she chose a mat that stunk, And wore a night-hood too, an empress-punk!
1705. in Lond. Gaz., No. 4156/1. The Earl of Sunderland … had Audience … of the Empress-Dowager. Ibid. (1711), 4875/2. His Excellency deliver’d her Majesty’s Credentials to the Empress-Regent.
b. Empress-cloth: a woollen fabric differing from merino chiefly in not being twilled. (App. not known as a trade term in England.)
1884. in Knight, Amer. Mech. Dict.; and in later Dicts.
