Definition of "mastery"
mastery
noun
usually uncountable, plural masteries
Superiority in war or competition; victory; triumph; preeminence.
Quotations
They were faire Ladies, till they fondly ſtriu’d / With th’Heliconian maides for mayſtery; / Of whom they ouer-comen, were depriu’d / Of their proud beautie, and th’one moyity / Transform’d to fiſh, for their bold ſurquedry, / But th’vpper halfe their hew retayned ſtill, / And their ſweet skill in wonted melody; / Which euer after they abuſd to ill, / T’allure weake traueillers, whom gotten they did kill.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 31, pages 370–371
O, but to ha' gulled him / Had been a mastery.
1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612; reprinted Menston, Yorkshire: The Scolar Press, 1970, (please specify the GB page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
(obsolete) A contest for superiority.
Quotations
(obsolete) The philosopher's stone.