May-lady

English

Noun

May-lady (plural May-ladies)

  1. (now rare, historical) A May Queen.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.10:
      The jolly Satyres, full of fresh delight, / Came dauncing forth, and with them nimbly ledd / Faire Hellenore with girlonds all bespredd, / Whom their May-lady they had newly made […].
    • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: [], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):
      , III.2.2.iii:
      Some light huswife belike, that was dressed like a may lady, and as most of our gentlewomen are.
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