(n.) A female superior or governess of a nunnery, or convent of nuns, having the same authority over the nuns which the abbots have over the monks. See Abbey.
Example Sentences:
(1) What else could explain, for example, her choice of a convent to situate her satire of Watergate, The Abbess of Crewe (1974), or, most famously, that of an elite girls' school for her study of fascism in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie?
(2) Route to success Lines: 14 Length: 211.3km (131.3 miles) Stations: 297 Budget (1998): £780m Staff: 9,100, including 3,000 drivers Ticket price: 8 francs (75p) or a carnet of 10 for 58 francs (£5.50) Total journeys (1998): 1.3bn Average number of daily departures: 5,500 Average number of daily users (1998): 4.4m Deepest station: Abbesses (36 metres) Busiest station: Saint-Lazare (32m passengers a year) 1903: fire kills 84 at Couronnes station; wooden benches replaced with metal ones 1910: Seine overflows, flooding most of network and affecting services for three months 1943: Allied air raid blows in roof of Porte de Saint-Cloud station, killing 403 people 1955: first pneumatic tyres 1968: first magnetic ticket-machines 1982: first woman metro driver 1991: first-class carriages abandoned 1992: Smoking banned - allegedly 1999: First unmanned line (No 14) opened
(3) The postmark shown, with "67" encircled, identifies a post office in Place des Abbesses in Paris, close to Theo's apartment.
(4) In the 12th century, the abbess Heloise advocated ideals which on the one hand questioned the medieval image of woman, while on the other hand she sought to be in accordance with the socially domineering male (Abaelard) who represented the intellectual life.