matron/ˈmeɪtɹən/EtymologyFrom Middle English matrone, from Old French matrone, from Latin mātrōna (“married woman”), from māter (“mother”). Doublet of matrona.nounA mature or elderly woman, especially one of a higher social rank.“grave from her cradle, insomuch that she was a matron before she was a mother”A mature or elderly woman, especially one of a higher social rank.; A woman with the character of a mother or matriarch.“But there’s no bottome, none / In my Voluptuouſneſſe : Your Wiues, your Daughters, / Your Matrons, and your Maides, could not fill vp / The Ceſterne of my Luſt, and my Deſire / All continent Impediments would ore-beare / That did oppoſe my will.”A mature or elderly woman, especially one of a higher social rank.; A woman in charge of the domestic arrangements of an establishment or institution, especially, the nursing officer or chief nurse of a hospital.“the matron of a school or hospital”A wife or a widow, especially, one who has borne children.“Roman matrons, sexually exhausted, were fond of trout caught in a little stream in the Vosges Mountains.”A housekeeper, especially, a woman who manages the domestic economy of a public institution.A female prison officer.