lord and master

English

Noun

lord and master (plural lords and masters)

1. A husband, especially one who is domineering.
   • 1806, Thomas Holcroft, The Deserted Daughter: A Comedy in Five Acts:

     She may say what she will, but I know very well that she is the most miserable-est lady alive, and I could tear his eyes out; husband, indeed? and so, because I listen'd to the fellow's love, and nonsense stutf, and took pity on him, when he was going to hang or drown himself, he must think, as soon as he has got me safe, to be my lord and master; I'd tell him another story ; my lord and master, truly.

   • 1996, Esther Greenberg, Aviva Rappaport, Woman to Woman, →ISBN:

     If you treat your husband as a lord, as a king, then he is going to treat you as a queen. But if you think that you can lord over him, then he is going to lord over you — he'll be your lord and master with force.

   • 2002, D. H. Lawrence, Bruce Steele, Kangaroo, →ISBN, page 169:

     When a sincere man marries a wife, he has one or two courses open to him, which he can pursue with that wife. He can propose to himself to be (a) the lord and master who is honored and obeyed, (b) the perfect lover, (c) the true friend and companion. Of these (a) is now rather out of date. The lord and master has been proved, by most women quite satisfactorily, to be no more than a grown-up child, and his arrogance is to be tolerated just as a little boy's arrogance is tolerated, because it is rather amusing, and up to a certain point becoming.

2. One who has control or dominance.
   • 2008, Fabian Black, The Stationmaster's House, →ISBN, page 83:

     I'd hardly used them either, do you know what I mean; I was just getting the hang of them when the Lord and Master decided they had to come off. There was no consultation, no let's sit down and chat about the pros and cons, just woof, off with his bollocks.

   • 2012, J.C. IJsseling, Rhetoric and Philosophy in Conflict: An Historical Survey, →ISBN, page 127:

     Man is here the origin of his thoughts and lord and master of the words which express these thoughts: he is the centre of language.

   • 2013, Thor Heyerdahl, Kon-Tiki, →ISBN, page 115:

     The pilot fish accompanied its lord and master to the last second. But, as it could not cling fast to the giant's skin, as the remora does, it was completely bewildered when its old master suddenly disappeared up into the air and did not come down again.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lord,‎ master.
   • 1843, Nicholas Ridley, Henry Christmas, The Works of Nicholas Ridley, D.D., Sometime Lord Bishop of London, Martyr, 1555:

     Master Ridley, after right hearty commendations: It chanced me, upon Wednesday last past, to be present at your sermon in the court, wherein I heard you confirm the doctrine in religion set forth by our late sovereign lord and master, whose soul God pardon!

   • 1987, Nathan J. Stone, Names Of God, →ISBN, page 66:

     Uzziah was the prophet's king, therefore his lord and master, and perhaps his hero too, in spite of his tragic end.

   • 1993, Shearer Davis Bowman, Masters and Lords: Mid-19th-Century U.S. Planters and Prussian Junkers, →ISBN:

     Neither the serfs of early modern East Elbia nor slaves in the colonial South submitted to exploitation by their lords and masters without resistance.