adventuress

noun

ad·​ven·​tur·​ess əd-ˈven-ch(ə-)rəs 

: a female adventurer: such as

a

: a woman who seeks dangerous or exciting experiences

b

somewhat old-fashioned : a woman who seeks position or livelihood by questionable means

Examples of adventuress in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Babitz’s gleefully debaucherous memoir captures her teen years as a glamour-mad adventuress pinballing around a town full of kooks. —Matt Brennan, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2024

Dempsey was a creative type, the sort of searcher who, in the Gilded Age, was known as an adventuress. —Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2023

Eliza’s urge to find the truth behind the disappearances begins with a literary argument with her friend Jean, a cross-dressing prostitute and adventuress who services women. —Mary Ann Gwinn, Los Angeles Times, 30 Nov. 2022

Her heroine, Angela Lovemore—that’s Dr. Lovemore to you—is an adventuress with beauty and brains. —Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 24 Mar. 2022

Jenna Coleman, already a veteran of storied nerd franchise Doctor Who, will play Lady Johanna Constantine, an 18th-century occult adventuress and ancestor of John Constantine. —Christian Holub, EW.com, 26 May 2021

Noelline is judged a successful adventuress, but Pianon is thought a double fool for having taken her back. —Andrea Lee, The New Yorker, 28 Dec. 2020

Lewd women, bawds and adventuresses were not welcome in courts, nor were prostitutes or immoral characters. —Clement Knox, Time, 4 Feb. 2020

In 1871 an English adventuress named Lucy Walker became the first woman to summit the mountain. —Mark Jenkins, National Geographic, 1 Aug. 2019

Word History

Etymology

adventure entry 1 + -ess

First Known Use

1707, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for adventuress

• adulteress
• nevertheless
• abbess
• abscess
• access
• address
• assess
• caress
• confess
• depress
• digress
• distress