schoolmistress (skolmis tres)

[=D.school mes tres, school matres; as schooll + mistre .] The mistre of a school; a woman who governs a school for children, but may or may not teach. Such precepts I have selected from the most considerable which we have from nature, that exact schoolmistre . Dryden. A matron old, whom we School - mistre name; Who boasts unruly brats with birch to tame. Shenstone, School-mistre , st. 2.