dragon lady

noun

: an overbearing or tyrannical woman

also : a glamorous often mysterious woman

Synonyms

• battle-ax
• battle-axe
• fury
• harpy
• harridan
• shrew
• termagant
• virago
• vixen

Examples of dragon lady in a Sentence

The new boss is a real dragon lady.

a conniving dragon lady, their mother attempted to dominate their lives well into their adult years

Recent Examples on the Web

Loren Kajikawa, an associate professor of music at George Washington University who specializes in race and politics in American music, said the dragon lady trope comes from the idea that Asian women are conniving beings who use seduction in manipulative, dangerous ways. —NBC News, 22 Dec. 2021

Why not call Uma Thurman, Vivica A. Fox or Daryl Hannah a dragon lady? —Jenna Ryu, USA TODAY, 30 Apr. 2021

But because of miscegenation laws that prevented interracial couples onscreen—and rampant yellowface practices—her opportunities were mostly limited to stereotypes like the rejected other woman or the villainous dragon lady. —Time, 5 Mar. 2020

My eyes caught the glances of the portraits, all people who made their bread acting as dragon ladies and inscrutable Chinamen in the movies. —San Francisco Chronicle, 20 Sep. 2019

There's a dragon lady also walking around Winterfell right now with eyes that look green in a certain light... —Ineye Komonibo, Marie Claire, 2 May 2019

Word History

Etymology

character in the comic strip "Terry and the Pirates" by Milton Caniff

First Known Use

1949, in the meaning defined above