The Grande Dame is the stately old woman — usually of wealth and rank, though often enough only wishing to appear so — who is very often a large woman of ample physique, uptight, humorless, and the butt of jokes. The Grande Dame is usually a spinster or widow, in which case she is likely to become an Old Maid or an Abhorrent Admirer; if she is married, it will usually be to a Henpecked Husband [...] [tvtropes.org]