\Mas"ter*y\, n.; pl. {Masteries}. [OF. maistrie.]
1. 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.  --Sir W.
                                               Raleigh.
2. Superiority in war or competition; victory; triumph;
   pre["e]minence.
         The voice of them that shout for mastery. --Ex.
                                               xxxii. 18.
         Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate
         in all things.                        --1 Cor. ix.
                                               25.
         O, but to have gulled him Had been a mastery. --B.
                                               Jonson.
3. Contest for superiority. [Obs.] --Holland.
4. A masterly operation; a feat. [Obs.]
         I will do a maistrie ere I go.        --Chaucer.
5. Specifically, the philosopher's stone. [Obs.]
6. The act process of mastering; the state of having
   mastered.
         He could attain to a mastery in all languages.
                                               --Tillotson.
         The learning and mastery of a tongue, being
         unpleasant in itself, should not be cumbered with
         other difficulties.                   --Locke.