mrs. harris

Preserved but no longer current.

Meaning · English

And ~Mrs. Gamp~, nicknames of the Morning Herald and Standard newspapers, while united under the proprietorship of Mr. Baldwin. MRS. GAMP, a monthly nurse, was a character in Charles Dickens’s popular novel of Martin Chuzzlewit, who continually quoted an imaginary MRS.

Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)

Where it’s used: Origin British & Irish English
Sources & notes

Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.

Common questions

What does “mrs. harris” mean?

And ~Mrs. Gamp~, nicknames of the Morning Herald and Standard newspapers, while united under the proprietorship of Mr. Baldwin. MRS. GAMP, a monthly nurse, was a character in Charles Dickens’s popular novel of Martin Chuzzlewit, who continually quoted an imaginary MRS.

Is “mrs. harris” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.