matron

[mey-truhn]

noun

1. a married woman, especially one who is mature and staid or dignified and has an established social position.

2. a woman who has charge of the domestic affairs of a hospital, prison, or other institution.

3. a woman serving as a guard, warden, or attendant for women or girls, as in a prison.

matron

/ ˈmeɪtrən /

noun

1. a married woman regarded as staid or dignified, esp a middle-aged woman with children

2. a woman in charge of the domestic or medical arrangements in an institution, such as a boarding school

3. a wardress in a prison

4. Official name: nursing officer. the former name for the administrative head of the nursing staff in a hospital

Other Word Forms

• matronal adjective
• matronhood noun
• matronship noun
• matron-like adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of matron¹

1350–1400; Middle English matrone < Latin mātrōna a married woman, wife, derivative of māter mother

Word History and Origins

Origin of matron¹

C14: via Old French from Latin mātrōna, from māter mother

Example Sentences

She asked to speak to the matron and was "ushered into the kitchen where a teenage girl was eating rice".

From BBC

Seema cosplaying a garden society matron certainly isn’t the worst vision this show has served.

From Salon

She arrived for breakfast looking elegant in a black-and-white caftan, the picture of an Upper West Side matron, a matron without a sizable body count.

From New York Times

“Staff didn’t have time to process or accept the losses,” the lead ICU matron at one large teaching hospital told Prof Fong.

From BBC

It was the paediatric matron in Bridgend who spotted the lie about her qualification date, while checking her registration code which all nurses, midwives and nurse associates must have to work in the UK.

From BBC

Related Words

• dowager 
• housekeeper 
• matriarch