[f. TAPSTER + -ESS; formed after tapster had ceased to be feminine: cf. seamstress, songstress.] A female tapster.
1631. Heywood, 1st Pt. Maid of West, I. Wks. 1874, II. 269. You are some tapstresse.
1667. Sir C. Lyttelton, in Hatton Corr. (Camden), 52. Hee has married a dirty tapstresse.
1690. Mrs. Behn, Widow Ranter, Dram. Pers. Mrs. Flirt, a Tapstress.
1699. E. Ward, Sot’s Paradise, 7.
| In comes a Female Tapstress, Pale and Wan, | |
| Sod’n with the fumes of what she’d Drank and Drawn, | |
| Looks worse than the green Girl who wants a Man. |
1784. MacNally, Robin Hood, II. 34. Enamoured with every landlady and taptress over the country, the Soldan of Persia is not a greater Turk at the business.
1805. Tobin, Honey Moon, III. iii. Spoke like an ancient tapstress.
1839. H. Ainsworth, J. Shepherd, III. xiii. The tapstress was full of curiosity.
1900. M. Gilchrist, Courtesy Dame, xxii. 162. She was minded of the days of her girlhood, when she had served in her stepfather’s inn; half unconsciously she parodied the manner of a professional tapstress.
