delta female

delta female (plural delta females)

1. A relatively low-status woman in the sociosexual hierarchy, (ranking below alpha, beta, and gamma females, but above omega females).
   • 2009, Gayden Metcalfe, Some Day You'll Thank Me for This:

     If a DSM “lets herself go”—the phrase is one of the most horrible in the Delta female's lexicon—Mother will regard it as a reflection on herself.

   • 2012, Malcolm Macdonald, Strange Music:

     In plain English, the alpha female is telling her beta-mate that she wants this Debbie girl, who will be very much a delta female, to take up the spare room in their flat, since her parents have cast her out in the snow.

   • 2019, Ruby Wax, How Do You Want Me?, page 144:

     There are only two types of Delta Female who have ever successfully captured the Alpha Male!

2. A female animal that ranks fourth in the social hierarchy.
   • 1968 June, Frank E. Poirier, “The Nilgiri langur (Presbytis johnii) mother-infant dyad”, in Primates, volume 9:

     The alpha female moves through the tree and sits next to the delta female; she reaches for her infant, but the delta female turns her back.

   • 1973, Folia Primatologica, page 460:

     It is interesting to note in this regard that the alpha female slapped the beta female, but only displayed toward the delta female.

   • 2013, Leonard A. Rosenblum, Primate Behavior: Developments in Field and Laboratory Research, page 308:

     The beta female approaches the delta female who sits with an infant at her chest.