hostess
/ˈhəʊstəs
/ /ˈhəʊstɛs/ /həʊˈstɛs/noun
1A woman who receives or entertains guests: the perfect dinner-party hostess...
- But it was beauteous Jayaprada who seemed all over the place at Annapurna Studios playing a perfect hostess and receiving prominent guests.
- In an attempt to further increase the response rate from manners-challenged guests, hosts and hostesses resorted to pre-stamping the envelopes.
- I partially agree with Peggy Post's answer to whether or not it is appropriate for a dinner-party guest to inform the hostess if she is a vegetarian.
1.1A woman employed to welcome and entertain customers at a nightclub or bar.She began working as a nightclub hostess when she met and married a drunken dentist who committed suicide three years after her execution....
- Ruth Ellis, a night-club hostess, was the last woman to be executed in Britain in 1955.
- She was working as a hostess in a Tokyo nightclub when she disappeared in July 2000 after visiting him.
1.2A stewardess on an aircraft, train, etc.Two hostesses or stewardesses in matching outfits enter....
- It's also the only train I know where hostesses mix piña coladas and rum punches on each car's roof.
- The strike was called by the Union of Kanak and Exploited Workers and the commercial and navigation staff union which represents hostesses, stewards and commercial staff.
1.3A woman who presents a television or radio programme: a game-show hostess...
- However, she started down a different career path after being chosen as the hostess for a radio programme for university students.
- After the broadcast, radio hostesses give children goodie bags to take home, physical reminders to reinforce their message long after the show.
- The end result is an unsatisfying film in which poverty, the exploitation of children and other social problems are just backdrops for a rather average tale about a street hustler and a television hostess.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French (h)ostesse, feminine of (h)oste (see host1).