[f. JESUIT sb. + -ESS: cf. F. jésuitesse.] A female Jesuit; a member of an order of nuns established on the principles of the Jesuits, but not recognized by papal authority, and suppressed by Pope Urban VIII.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 44. You shall haue a yong Iesuitesse ready to flie in his face, to cast the house out at the window.
1616. Sir D. Carleton, Lett. (1775), 68. Mrs. Ward and her fellow … at Liege … having bought a house … which they intend to make a college of Jesuitesses.
1645. Evelyn, Diary, 6 May. There was now at Rome one Mrs. Ward, an English devotee, who much solicited for an Order of Jesuitesses.
1898. Weekly Reg., 9 July, 43. The Congregation popularly miscalled Jesuitesses was suppressed by Urban VIII. in 1631.
