n.
 (pl. ladies)
    - (in polite or formal use) a woman.
 - a woman of superior social position. 
▸
(Lady)
 (in the UK) a title used by peeresses, female relatives of peers, the wives and widows of knights, etc.
 ▸a courteous or genteel woman.
 - 
(one's lady)
 dated a man's wife. 
▸historical a woman to whom a knight is chivalrously devoted.
 - 
(the Ladies)
 Brit. a women's public toilet.
 
 
  Phrase
  
    - find the lady
 another term for three-card trick.  - it isn't over till the fat lady sings
 there is still time for a situation to change. 
[by assoc. with the final aria in tragic opera.]
  - Lady Muck
 see muck.  - My Lady
 a polite form of address to female judges and certain noblewomen. 
   
  Derivative
  
  History
  The forerunner of the word lady in Old English was hlæfdīge, meaning the female head of a household, or a woman to whom homage or obedience was due, such as the wife of a lord or, specifically, the Virgin Mary. The word came from hlāf ‘loaf’ and a Germanic base meaning ‘knead’ which is related to dough and dairy; thus a lady was a ‘loaf kneader’. The word lord developed in a similar way; in Old English it literally meant ‘bread keeper’.