[f. BISHOP sb. + -ESS.]
1. The wife of a bishop. (Only a nonce-word.)
1672–5. Comber, Comp. Temple (1702), 240. The Councils of that age call their Wives by the name of (Episcopa) the Bishopess.
1748. Mrs. Delany, Life & Corr., 489. We … found the bishop and his bishopess very well.
1885. Q. Rev., July, 184, note. Sophia did not take the title of Bishopess or even Princess of Osnabruck.
2. A female- or she-bishop. (Here used jestingly.)
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, I. 30. I enclose you a rude scrap representing the bishopess of Clapham.
1880. Macm. Mag., Dec., 149. Can you conceive such a thing as the notion of a bishopess?
