Princess-ship

Near-synonym: princessdom

“[…] I cannot get in, as the door is barred and bolted, and I am too mild to employ force; but I have taken the liberty to torment her a little with my optical glass, that she may know I am her lord and master in spite of her imaginary princess-ship.”

In the masterless state of her heart, she might have deemed the princess-ship tempting enough to warrant the venture.

A woman may take some comfort in being a princess, because she can set the fashions, and become the mother of kings; but, on the other hand, she can seldom marry her true-love, or have her own way in the training of her children; she can never prefer her friends to honor, or give a hearty snub to her enemies, for fear of losing her popularity. After all, I think, if women had their choice of position in the world before they entered it, the princess-ships would go a-begging.

Nan gets out unassisted, feeling severely that her days of princess-ship are over; and she has redeemed her box, and the train is off again ere any one asks whither she is going.

Héctor Elizondo’s Joe might be the best perk of Mia’s princess-ship: The head of Genovian security never panics; he gut-checks Clarisse when he thinks she’s being too harsh on her granddaughter; and, in a major wingman move, swoops in mid-thunderstorm with a limo to escort a soaked Mia to her inaugural ball.

Remembering her own formative first glimpse of Hepburn, she repositions a starlet now thought of as old-world as instead a proto-feminist, “abdicating her princess-ship” to adventure through Rome on a scooter.