Definition of "madonna"

Alternative letter-case form of Madonna.

1. A representation of the Virgin Mary.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Glogau Stat.—Inns: Deutsches Haus; Westphal’s Hotel. A fortress of the 2nd rank on the l. bank of the Oder, 17,000 Inhab. The Dom upon an island dates from 1120, and contains a madonna by Cranach, sen., his masterpiece.

     1868, “Sect VI.—Prussia, continued. Route 81”, in A Handbook for Travellers on the Continent: Being a Guide to Holland, Belgium, Prussia, Northern Germany, and the Rhine from Holland to Switzerland. […], Sixteenth edition, London: John Murray, page 437

   • Giacomo Medica’s (1965) sample of the 697 most important Marian sanctuaries in Italy gives us some idea of the number of Italian madonnas in Italy as a whole.

     1992, Michael P. Carroll, “The Mary Cult”, in Madonnas That Maim: Popular Catholicism in Italy since the Fifteenth Century, Baltimore, Md., London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, page 62

   • When it has not whitened them, the church has attempted to assimilate dark or black madonnas; this is evident in the many Italian madonnas described as bruna.

     1993, Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, Black Madonnas: Feminism, Religion, and Politics in Italy, Northeastern University Press, page 32

   • The darkening effects of being buried, especially outdoors, sounds plausible in a few such cases, but if candle smoke is to account for all the other dark madonnas, as the Church asserts, why would not the entire statue have become black?

     2004, Charlene Spretnak, Missing Mary: The Queen of Heaven and Her Re-Emergence in the Modern Church, Palgrave Macmillan, page 231

2. A morally pure woman.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Yet most of us will probably deny that this blissful woman is a sexual woman. We associate her with Virgin Mary, who conceived in an act of spiritual purity and not in carnal lust and desire. We regard her chastity as essential to her maternal rectitude. Thus we hardly recognize the madonna's subtle sensuality as sexual energy, especially not in an age where we measure sexuality in orgasmic potency.

     1995, Merete Leonhardt-Lupa, “A Mother's Sexuality”, in A Mother Is Born: Preparing for Motherhood During Pregnancy, Westport, Conn., London: Bergin & Garvey, page 113

   • For centuries, madonnas provided legitimate children and social respectability; whores, illegitimate pleasure.

     1997, Teri Goodson, “A Prostitute Joins NOW”, in Jill Nagle, editor, Whores and Other Feminists, New York, N.Y., London: Routledge, part 5 (Politics: Activism, Intervention, and Alliance), page 250

   • […] whether women’s liberation might be better achieved by rejecting the traditional dichotomization of women into good girls/bad girls, madonnas/whores, and hence refusing to organize one's sexual desire and pleasure in terms of the repressive and passive roles that are traditionally ascribed to female sexuality within dominant discourses (the so-called ‘agency’ model).

     2004, Elaine Jeffreys, “Feminist prostitution debates and responses”, in China, Sex and Prostitution (RoutledgeCurzon Studies on China in Transition), London, New York, N.Y.: RoutledgeCurzon, section “The development of theoretical approaches”, page 75

3. A lady.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • […] hee lay laſt night in ſuch a madonnas chamber, tother night he lay in ſuch a Counteſſes couch, to night he lies in ſuch a Ladies cloſet, […]

     1604 (date written), Iohn Marston [i.e., John Marston], Parasitaster, or The Fawne, […], 2nd edition, London: […] T[homas] P[urfoot] for W[illiam] C[otton], published 1606, Act III, scene i

   • A Hollywood madonna […] “Gentlemen: This is my Christmas madonna …”

     1960 December, Skulda V. Baner, “A Hollywood madonna”, in American Girl, volume XLIII, number 12, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., page 42

(skateboarding) A one-footed lien-to-tail trick, where the front foot is taken off and kicked out straight down behind the board.  examples