killeress

killeress

English

Etymology

killer +‎ -ess

Noun

killeress (plural killeresses)

1. a female killer
   • 1869, Le Mesurier Hunt, Peeps at Brittany: The Bretons, and Breton Literature, page 116:

     Get out of the way of the killeress." And she, worse than ever leper before, was in solitude in the midst of life. She lived anyhow, slept anywhere, and was never greeted by sign or voice.

   • 1944, The University Review

     To begin with, was the Borden double-killer a killer or a killeress — a hatchet-man or a hatchet-woman?

   • 2007, David W. Menefee, The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era, BearManor Media, page 1888:

     “It turned up callously at the Lyceum last evening with Richard Barthelmess as the snide killer and Mary Phillips as the killeress." he wrote.