the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
n. A female beholder or looker-on.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
n. A female spectator or looker-on.
Word Usage
"I know you are merely a spectatress, and I will not alarm your friends, nor dwell myself, upon collateral mischiefs, or eventual dangers, from a business that in three days will end, by your restoration to the most respectable of all protections."