first lady

noun, often capitalized F&L

Updated on: 19 Apr 2018

Definition of first lady

1 : the wife or hostess of the chief executive of a country or jurisdiction

2 : the leading woman of an art or profession

See first lady defined for English-language learners

See first lady defined for kids

Examples of first lady in a Sentence

The President and the First Lady attended the concert.
the first lady of American dance

Recent Examples of first lady from the Web

But when the pool got called, even when the pool got called into the diplomatic room we were being told that the president and the first lady were going to Trump international hotel for dinner.

— Fox News, "Gorka on Syria strike: US is duty-bound to respond to Assad," 13 Apr. 2018
Prince Harry and Barack Obama go way back—but despite their hanging out together at Kensington Palace and interviewing each other on a BBC radio program, the former U.S. president and first lady did not receive an invitation to the royal wedding.

— alex warner, Marie Claire, "Barack and Michelle Obama Didn't Get Invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Wedding," 10 Apr. 2018
As a young arts educator, Orenstein was inspired by her advocacy work for the first lady, who chose her and 11 others to run an experimental program to help underprivileged and disaffected Harlem youth to learn through the arts.

— janene holzberg, Howard County Times, "5 things you didn't know about Toby Orenstein," 3 Apr. 2018
That was part of my goal of being in the White House and the work with the first lady, to make these issues more mainstream in our culture.

— kristine m. kierzek, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Former Obama chef dreams of a better world," 2 Apr. 2018
Ahead of the interview, the President and first lady have opted to be in different states.

— maegan vazquez, CNN, "What you need to know ahead of Stormy Daniels' '60 Minutes' interview," 25 Mar. 2018
The former president and first lady could also lend their brand — and their endorsement — to documentaries or fictional programming on Netflix that align with their beliefs and values.

— michael d. shear, BostonGlobe.com, "Obama is said to be in talks with Netflix to produce shows," 9 Mar. 2018
The former president and first lady could also lend their brand — and their endorsement — to documentaries or fictional programming on Netflix that align with their beliefs and values.

— michael d. shear, katie benner and john koblin, New York Times, "Obama in Talks to Provide Shows for Netflix," 8 Mar. 2018
Both capture elements that their subjects carefully curated during their public life as president and first lady.

— pelican bomb, NOLA.com, "Living on the edge: Artist captures disappearing coastline," 15 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'first lady.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.