lady of leisure
1
6.3
- noun
:
mujer de ocio
Examples
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I'm not a lady of leisure anymore, you know.
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- l'm bored being a lady of leisure.
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In a different, better age, we would be ladies of leisure, lunching together, visiting galleries, travelling, putting the world to rights.
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All these ladies of leisure were in their thirties or forties, except one stooped woman with bruises on her legs who wasn't lying down.
Fiction book (1996) -
After years of hard work, she finally became a lady of leisure, spending her days painting and traveling.
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With no job to tie her down, being a lady of leisure allowed her to pursue her hobbies and interests.
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Many women aspire to be a lady of leisure, enjoying activities like gardening, reading, and socializing.
Antonyms
14
3.2
A woman who has a paid job doing physical tasks outside the home, often in a factory
How Busy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from 'lady' (a woman) + 'leisure' (free time) with 'of' marking the relationship, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand it denotes a woman characterized by having ample free time (typically not working). The construction follows a common English noun-of-noun pattern found across many languages, so despite minor cultural nuances about social class or wealth, the basic sense is transparent to learners.
Etymology
The phrase lady of leisure may come from a time when rich women did not need paid work and could spend their days on hobbies while servants looked after the house. The image of a lady enjoying leisure is why it means 'a woman who does not have a paid job and has plenty of free time'.