kept woman

Definitions

A woman who is supported financially by a lover (usually a married man).

Equivalents

Examples

“He said: "Why bother about a career? After all, kept woman is a thoroughly respectable occupation—or can be made so by any preacher or justice of the peace. . . ." "I could not belong⟳ to a man unless I cared for him," said she.”

“"I'm a kept woman," she explained. "What else is any woman?"”

“Fannie Hurst's tender and moving biography of a kept woman is here reproduced in a sincere, detailed picture. Irene Dunne . . . falls in love⟳ with John Boles, a pedigreed young banker, who by a series of misunderstandings, makes her his mistress instead of his wife.”

CEFR level