Definition of "protégée"

The Admiral delighted in the boy, Mrs. Crawford doted on the girl; and it was the lady's death which now obliged her protegée, after some months' further trial at her uncle's house, to find another home.

1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter IV, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Egerton, […], page 81

Though formerly a protégée and friend of [Nicolas] Sarkozy, [Rachida] Dati has fallen from grace in the past year, said John Lichfield in The Independent.

2009 January 31, “Rachida Dati: why was she fired?”, in The Week, number 700, page 21