Definition of "lioness"

Residents on the south-western outskirts of Berlin are being urged to stay indoors after overnight sightings of a “loose, dangerous animal”, suspected to be an escaped lioness.

2023 July 20, Philip Oltermann, “Lioness believed to be on loose in Berlin”, in The Guardian‎

The stories were a tremendous success; she was one of the leading lionesses of London literary society.

1877, The Contemporary Review, volume 29, page 1123

The Middlesbrough Labour MP, Stuart Bell, a political and personal friend, said: "Mo was a lioness both in terms of the Labour party and politics nationally. She cut to the quick with any issue and proved herself a stateswoman of the highest order when seeking to negotiate the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement.

2005 August 19, James Sturcke, quoting Stuart Bell, “Mowlam a political ‘lioness’”, in The Guardian‎

The social worker said she talked to her 28-year-old daughter about the battles Feinstein fought so that younger generations of women could dream bigger. “She was a lioness.”

2023 October 6, “Memorial honors trailblazing senator Dianne Feinstein: ‘She was a lioness’”, in The Guardian‎, sourced from Associated Press

When "lionesses" visiting Oxford for the gay doings of commemoration week spend a morning at Merton, they should look out for Antony Wood's mural tablet in the chapel, […]

1871, John Cordy Jeaffreson, Annals of Oxford, page 305

"Now, boys, keep your eyes open, there must be plenty of lionesses about;" and thus warned, the whole load, including the cornopean player, were on the look-out for lady visitors, profanely called lionesses, all the way up the street.

1888, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, page 271