1. marchioness(n = noun.person) - the wife or widow of a marquis;
is a kind of married woman, wife
2. marchioness(n = noun.person) marquise - a noblewoman ranking below a duchess and above a countess;
is a kind of lady, noblewoman, peeress
has particulars: francoise d'aubigne, madame de maintenon, maintenon, marquise de maintenon, francoise-athenais de rochechouart, marquise de montespan, montespan, jeanne antoinette poisson, marquise de pompadour, pompadour
The wife or the widow of a marquis; a woman who has the rank and dignity of a marquis. Spelman. [1913 Webster]
marchioness, n.
1 the wife or widow of a marquess.
2 a woman holding the rank of marquess in her own right (cf. MARQUISE).
Etymology:
med.L marchionissa f. marchio -onis captain of the marches (as MARCH(2))
N nobility, rank, condition, distinction, optimacy, blood, pur sang, birth, high descent, order, quality, gentility, blue blood of Castile, ancien regime, high life, haute monde, upper classes, upper ten thousand, the four hundred, elite, aristocracy, great folks, fashionable world, peer, peerage, house of lords, house of peers, lords, lords temporal and spiritual, noblesse, noble, nobleman, lord, lordling, grandee, magnifico, hidalgo, daimio, daimyo, samurai, shizoku, don, donship, aristocrat, swell, three- tailed bashaw, gentleman, squire, squireen, patrician, laureate, gentry, gentlefolk, squirarchy, better sort magnates, primates, optimates, pantisocracy, king, atheling, prince, duke, marquis, marquisate, earl, viscount, baron, thane, banneret, baronet, baronetcy, knight, knighthood, count, armiger, laird, signior, seignior, esquire, boyar, margrave, vavasour, emir, ameer, scherif, sharif, effendi, wali, sahib, chevalier, maharaja, nawab, palsgrave, pasha, rajah, waldgrave, princess, begum, duchess, marchioness, countess, lady, dame, memsahib, Do$a, maharani, rani, personage of distinction, man of distinction, personage of rank, man of rank, personage of mark, man of mark, notables, notabilities, celebrity, bigwig, magnate, great man, star, superstar, big bug, big gun, great gun, gilded rooster, magni nominis umbra, every inch a king, noble, exalted, of rank, princely, titled, patrician, aristocratic, high-, well-born, of gentle blood, genteel, comme il faut, gentlemanlike, courtly, highly respectable, in high quarters, Adel sitzt im Gemuthe nicht im Gebluete, adelig und edel sind zweierlei, noblesse oblige.