[1580–90; villain + -ess]This word is first recorded in the period 1580–90. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: bomb, category, filibuster, humanist, scramble-ess is a suffix forming distinctively feminine nouns. Other words that use the affix-ess include: actress, adventuress, conductress, peeress, proprietress
Examples of 'villainess' in a sentence
villainess
However, the real star — or is it villainess?
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
It's just a shame it's going to be a villain and not a villainess.
The Sun (2006)
That's not the priority of the classic villainess.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
But it's sickly, mechanical and, like its villainess, it has no heart.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
But you know, no villainess thinks that she is bad, she doesn't know that she is wrong.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Stiff, rasping and twitchy, her grotesque villainess is not just desperately unfunny, but frequently plain incomprehensible.