[f. LADY sb. + -HOOD.]
1. The state or condition of being a lady; the qualities pertaining to a lady.
1820. Coleridge, Lett., Convers., etc. I. 42. She often represents to my mind the best parts of the Spanish Santa Teresa ladyhood by nature.
1878. Besant & Rice, Celia’s Arb., xli. A lady about five-and-forty … with delicate features and an air of perfect ladyhood.
2. Ladies collectively; the realm of ladies.
1821. Blackw. Mag., X. 63. The gallantry of ladyhood is abroad.
1879. F. Harrison, Choice Bks. (1886), 46. That wonderful storehouse … preserves for us an inimitable picture of the knighthood, ladyhood, and yeomanry of the Middle Ages.
