heroine

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A female lead character.

   Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.

2. 2
   adj

   Characteristic of a heroine; heroic.

   Theoxena to free hir Siſters children and hir owne from the laſciuious embraces of King Phillip, put weapons into their weaker hands, and perſwaded them Vt imminens ludibrium morte effugerent; to reſcue themſelues by Death from imminent diſgrace, wherein ſhe had no ſooner preuailed, but with a heroine reſolution ſhe ſhewed them by hir owne example, that what ſhee had taught them, was eaſie to be done.

3. 3
   noun

   Dated form of heroin.

   […] 1,451 ounces of heroine hydrochloride, and 19 ounces of codeine — the equivalent of 16,273 pounds of opium.

4. 4
   noun

   the main good female character in a work of fiction

5. 5
   noun

   a woman possessing heroic qualities or a woman who has performed heroic deeds

6. 6
   noun

   A female hero.

Etymology

From Latin hērōīna, from late Ancient Greek ἡρωΐνη (hērōḯnē) (2nd century), a feminine equivalent of ἥρως (hḗrōs, “hero, demigod”), equivalent to hero + -ine (suffix forming feminine nouns). * English from 1587. The sense of "female lead character" is from 1715.