Noun

(en noun)

(British) The .

Dame Edith Sitwell

(dated, informal, slightly, derogatory, US) A woman.

* 1949 , (Oscar Hammerstein II), "(There is Nothing Like a Dame)",

There ain't nothin' like a dame'! / Nothin' in the world! / There is nothin' you can name / That is anythin' like a ' dame !

A traditional character in British pantomime, a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag.

(archaic) , woman.

Noun

(-)

What is said or reported; gossip, rumour.

* 1667 , (John Milton), (Paradise Lost) , Book 1, ll. 651-4:

There went a fame in Heav'n that he ere long / Intended to create, and therein plant / A generation, whom his choice regard / Should favour […].

* 2012 , Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex , Penguin 2013, p. 23:

If the accused could produce a specified number of honest neighbours to swear publicly that the suspicion was unfounded, and if no one else came forward to contradict them convincingly, the charge was dropped: otherwise the common fame was held to be true.

One's reputation.

The state of being famous or well-known and spoken of.

* (William Shakespeare)

I find thou art no less than fame hath bruited.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.}}