mastery

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   power to dominate or defeat

   mastery of the seas

2. 2
   noun

   The position or authority of a master; dominion; command; supremacy; superiority.

   If divided by mountains, they will fight for the mastery of the passages of the tops.

3. 3
   noun

   Superiority in war or competition; victory; triumph; preeminence.

   They were faire Ladies, till they fondly ſtriu’d / With th’Heliconian maides for mayſtery; / Of whom they ouer-comen, were depriu’d / Of their proud beautie, and th’one moyity / Transform’d to fiſh, for their bold ſurquedry, / But th’vpper halfe their hew retayned ſtill, / And their ſweet skill in wonted melody; / Which euer after they abuſd to ill, / T’allure weake traueillers, whom gotten they did kill.

4. 4
   noun

   The act or process of mastering; the state of having mastered; expertise.

   He […]could attain to a mastery in all languages.

5. 5
   noun

   A contest for superiority.

   […] pastimes of wrestling, and like maſteries betweene the Citizens of London and others of the Suburbes […]

6. 6
   noun

   A masterly operation; a feat.

   Ye welsh men..brake out vpon the Englysshe men in ye Bordour..and there made masteryes for a whyle.

7. 7
   noun

   the act of mastering or subordinating someone

8. 8
   noun

   great skillfulness and knowledge of some subject or activity

Etymology

From Middle English maistery, maistrie, mastere, mastry, from Old French maistrie, equivalent to master + -y.