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HEROINE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The main good female character in a work of fiction
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("heroine" is a kind of...):
character; part; persona; role; theatrical role (an actor's portrayal of someone in a play)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A woman possessing heroic qualities or a woman who has performed heroic deeds
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("heroine" is a kind of...):
adult female; woman (an adult female person (as opposed to a man))
Instance hyponyms:
Judith (Jewish heroine in one of the books of the Apocrypha; she saved her people by decapitating the Assyrian general Holofernes)
Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley; Mary McCauley; McCauley; Molly Pitcher (heroine of the American Revolution who carried water to soldiers during the Battle of Monmouth Court House and took over her husband's gun when he was overcome by heat (1754-1832))
Context examples:
Now, if she had been the heroine of a moral storybook, she ought at this period of her life to have become quite saintly, renounced the world, and gone about doing good in a mortified bonnet, with tracts in her pocket.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
They made their appearance in the Lower Rooms; and here fortune was more favourable to our heroine.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
But, you see, Jo wasn't a heroine, she was only a struggling human girl like hundreds of others, and she just acted out her nature, being sad, cross, listless, or energetic, as the mood suggested.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
He did not give the complacent wraith any name, but he took her for his heroine and grew quite fond of her, as well he might, for he gifted her with every gift and grace under the sun, and escorted her, unscathed, through trials which would have annihilated any mortal woman.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
But my affair is widely different; I bring back my heroine to her home in solitude and disgrace; and no sweet elation of spirits can lead me into minuteness.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
A heroine in a hack post-chaise is such a blow upon sentiment, as no attempt at grandeur or pathos can withstand.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Concerning the one in question, therefore, I have only to add—aware that the rules of composition forbid the introduction of a character not connected with my fable—that this was the very gentleman whose negligent servant left behind him that collection of washing-bills, resulting from a long visit at Northanger, by which my heroine was involved in one of her most alarming adventures.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
The Tilneys called for her at the appointed time; and no new difficulty arising, no sudden recollection, no unexpected summons, no impertinent intrusion to disconcert their measures, my heroine was most unnaturally able to fulfil her engagement, though it was made with the hero himself.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
The company began to disperse when the dancing was over—enough to leave space for the remainder to walk about in some comfort; and now was the time for a heroine, who had not yet played a very distinguished part in the events of the evening, to be noticed and admired.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
