From Middle English leonesse, lyonesse, from Old French leonesse, lionesse; equivalent to lion +‎ -ess.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪ.ə.nɪs/, /ˈlaɪ.ə.nɛs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

lioness (plural lionesses)

1. A female lion (animal).

   Synonym: (idiomatic) queen of beasts

   • 2023 July 20, Philip Oltermann, “Lioness believed to be on loose in Berlin”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Residents on the south-western outskirts of Berlin are being urged to stay indoors after overnight sightings of a “loose, dangerous animal”, suspected to be an escaped lioness.

2. (figurative) A female lion (famous person regarded with interest and curiosity).
   • 1877, The Contemporary Review, volume 29, page 1123:

     The stories were a tremendous success; she was one of the leading lionesses of London literary society.

   • 2005 August 19, James Sturcke, quoting Stuart Bell, “Mowlam a political ‘lioness’”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     The Middlesbrough Labour MP, Stuart Bell, a political and personal friend, said: "Mo was a lioness both in terms of the Labour party and politics nationally. She cut to the quick with any issue and proved herself a stateswoman of the highest order when seeking to negotiate the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement.

   • 2023 October 6, “Memorial honors trailblazing senator Dianne Feinstein: ‘She was a lioness’”, in The Guardian‎^[3], sourced from Associated Press, →ISSN:

     The social worker said she talked to her 28-year-old daughter about the battles Feinstein fought so that younger generations of women could dream bigger. “She was a lioness.”

3. (Oxford University slang, obsolete) A female visitor to a student at Oxford, especially during commemoration week.
   • 1871, John Cordy Jeaffreson, Annals of Oxford, page 305:

     When "lionesses" visiting Oxford for the gay doings of commemoration week spend a morning at Merton, they should look out for Antony Wood's mural tablet in the chapel, […]

   • 1888, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, page 271:

     "Now, boys, keep your eyes open, there must be plenty of lionesses about;" and thus warned, the whole load, including the cornopean player, were on the look-out for lady visitors, profanely called lionesses, all the way up the street.

• John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary
• “lioness”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “lioness”, in The Century Dictionary[…], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• Elisons, esloins, insoles, lesions, selions