From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmatronma‧tron /ˈmeɪtrən/ noun [countable] 1 WOMANMARRY literary an older married woman2 British English old-fashionedMH a nurse who is in charge of the other nurses in a hospital3 British EnglishSES a woman who works as a nurse in a private school4 American EnglishSCSE a woman who is in charge of women and children in a school or prison
Examples from the Corpus
matron• The woman grabbed one arm, a matron the other.• Mr. and Mrs. Dawes were the acting master and matron, and they were not universally popular.• At Café Europa, society matrons sip coffee after shopping.• Her husband had died in California in 1849, while Farnham worked on prison reform as the matron of Sing-Sing.• He searched the clothes and sacks of the boys, the matrons those of the girls.• The Tanganyika Two nurses were to meet the matron to whom they had been assigned.Origin matron (1300-1400) French matrone, from Latin matrona, from mater “mother” 