adventuressn.
/ədˈvɛn(t)ʃ(ə)rᵻs/, /ədˌvɛn(t)ʃ(ə)ˈrɛs/, U.S. /ədˈvɛn(t)ʃ(ə)rəs/ A female adventurer; a woman who seeks or enjoys adventures. Also: (frequently with negative connotations) a woman who looks for chances of personal advancement, esp. by using her sexuality.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > evil nature or character > lack of magnanimity or noble-mindedness > self-interest > [noun] > self-interested person > woman
adventuress1707
Essex girl1991
1707 tr. M. Alemán Life Guzman d’Alfarache II. xix. 225 Wishing him Joy with his fine Adventuress, he receiv'd the Thanks of the Neapolitan, put his Spurs to his Horse, and was soon out of Sight.
1734 ‘C. Johnson’ Gen. Hist. Lives Highwaymen 175/2 Our Adventuress had the pickings of a few Feathers from an old Gentleman who fell in Love with her.
1838 Tait’s Edinb. Mag. Dec. 799/2 We shall have a scramble to the summit of Symond's Yat for which the boat was moored in floating down the Wye, that the fair adventuress might scale its height.
1848 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair xlviii. 425 The odious little adventuress making her curtsey.
1863 M. A. Power Arabian Days & Nights 232 A good sprinkling of foreigners, adventurers, and adventuresses.
1908 E. Higginson Alaska xliii. 464 Brave-hearted, earnest women, dissolute dance-hall girls, and, more dangerous still, the quiet, seductive adventuress—they were all there.
1986 Linlithgowshire Jrnl. & Gaz. 17 July 12/2 Linlithgow adventuress Jean Smith has been coping with the excitement and variety of life in the jungle.
2007 Mail on Sunday (Nexis) 2 Dec. c1 8 This alleged renaissance seems marked chiefly by..the domination of the best-seller lists by the memoirs of sexual adventuresses.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1707