Definition of "patroness"

And Night, the patronesse of love-stealth fayre, / Gave them safe conduct, till to end they came.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie

As a young girl, Sor Juana felt protected by Minerva's wisdom and knowledge, and this may explain why she felt connected to this goddess who was patroness of both wisdom and, “persons engaged in the learned professions.”

2014, Theresa A. Yugar, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, page 90

If I buy a ticket for a Flower Show, or a Music Show, or any sort of Show, and pay pretty heavy for it, why am I to be Patroned and Patronessed as if the Patrons and Patronesses treated me?

1865, Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend

But a diary here and there survives from which we may see the patroness more closely and less romantically.

1932, Virginia Woolf, The Second Common Reader (Donne After Three Centuries), page 30

If I buy a ticket for a Flower Show, or a Music Show, or any sort of Show, and pay pretty heavy for it, why am I to be Patroned and Patronessed as if the Patrons and Patronesses treated me?

1865, Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend

on a following page there is half a column devoted to a forthcoming fashion show, patronessed by well-known New York society women yet frankly and baldly for the purposes of trade and advertisement—how ironical the announcement, “for the benefit of our soldiers at the front!"

1917, The Villager - Volume 1, page 182

The second outstanding encouragement is the growing number of Circles organized and "patronessed" by members of the Chapters.

1918, Home Mission Monthly - Volume 32, Issue 10, page 236

Subsequent comments were equally cordial from those who patronized and those who patronessed, though the agreement was general that in the future a little more floor space would not be wasted.

1926, The Cap and Gown, page 360