commissionairess

Definitions

A female commissionaire.

Examples

““What if women commissioners should be appointed?” asked the Doubter. “Create⟳ the title, ‘commissionairess’,” said the Serious Minded.”

“[…]but when the door was opened for him and he had to an address he remembered that he wanted to go nowhere in particular, unless to see⟳ the second commissionairess forty yards further on.”

“The Commissionairess. Have⟳ you noticed how the women doorkeepers outside the big stores have⟳ already hit off exactly the pose of the old commissionaires? There is something about a doorkeeper unlike any other mortal—a certain Olympian, if polite, contempt of the ordinary shopping person, a congenital distrust of the lap dog. Woman, wonderful creature, has acquired all that in a week. She treads the pavement as though she had just bought it; she glances up at the shop⟳ windows, not with a woman’s usual acquisitive glance⟳, but with a “still there, are you?” look⟳. To see⟳ her blow⟳ her whistle is an education; to see⟳ her summon a motor is an event.”

“The Commissionairess. “My duties? Oh, light⟳ enough in a way, though they make⟳ you feel⟳ rather slow now and then. It doesn’t want⟳ much energy to whistle up a taxi, does it? “But the uniform! Just look⟳ at it! The skirt! Did you ever see⟳ such a cut⟳? Why, it might have⟳ been made for my grandmother!” “And the hat! How could any girl with an oval face⟳ like⟳ mine look⟳ nice in a hat without a brim? “No, the work⟳ isn’t hard. But the uniform!””

“Corps of Commissionairesses.”

“[…]minister-girls, and commissionairesses, who are filling the places of men[…]”

“Every now and again some of the West End⟳ shops are seized with the craze of exhibiting lady commissionaires in fancy costume. After a time many of them disappear⟳ (the commissionairesses, not the shops), possibly because they cannot stand⟳ the curious and amused glances of passers-by or the impertinent “asides” of messenger boys. Yesterday I saw⟳ that another shop⟳—in Regent-street—had started. A pretty girl dressed up in comic opera Hussar’s uniform was trying to look⟳ unconcerned.”

“SINCE women have⟳ taken a prominent part in all sorts of public services, life all round has become⟳ much more pleasant. The magistrate who made such complimentary remarks about the “conductorette” the other day was really expressing the general opinion about the “footwoman” and the van-woman, the lift-woman and the page-girl, the commissionairess in her smart braided uniform, and all those other “war workers” in unaccustomed professions who have⟳ now become⟳ an accepted fact of life.”

“An exceptionally whimsical fact about this Wooden Curtain is, that those who have⟳ once been granted the right to live⟳ behind it, can, by all means, at all times, come⟳ out of it—except on a few occasions when the gigantic and direful commissionairesses’, probably under instructions from the authorities, are guarding all approaches to the Free World: but the inhabitants of the ‘Free World’ cannot at any time, under any circumstances, enter⟳ the territory behind the Wooden Curtain.”

“A call⟳ from Joan Axelrod’s secretary to tell⟳ me she and her commissionairess waited lunch for me yesterday.”

“Susan Karp and Sharon Kass, Co-Commissionairesses”

CEFR level