grandam
Americannoun
-
a grandmother.
-
an old woman.
noun
Etymology
Origin of grandam
1175–1225; Middle English gra ( u ) ndame < Old French grant dame. See grand, dame
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
To many of her contemporaries Eleanor was a byword for wantonness, in Shakespeare four centuries later a "canker'd grandam"; by the time of Victoria, Charles Dickens thought it sufficient to call Eleanor "a bad woman."
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
By the Games of 2022, it may be grandam Kissling who is declaring that, say, rhythmic snow dancing does not deserve to be elevated alongside her time-honored pursuit.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Yet was he made, as nature had agreed, To match them both together from her wombe, And be a ioyfull grandam in their seed.
From Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) by Paul William Miller
Day Star has a double Glencoe cross through his sire Star Davis, and his great grandam Magnolia.
From History of the Kentucky Derby, 1875-1921 by John Lawrence O'Connor
"See, here is my grandam coming with various things for us; and I warrant me you shall find some gingerbread amongst them."
From Judith Shakespeare Her love affairs and other adventures by William Black
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.