grandam
Americannoun
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a grandmother.
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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
"Do, child, go to it grandam, child; Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam will Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig!"
From The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. X (of X) - America - II, Index by Lodge, Henry Cabot
Strolling through the well-appointed armoury, displeased and concerned, he selected the light silver-mounted lance which his grandam had used to splendid purpose when, in the absence of her spouse, she defended this very castle.
From The Curse of Koshiu A Chronicle of Old Japan by Wingfield, Lewis
Dear Santo Domingo, how I do love you, with your childish life, and your ancestral streets—a grandam and a babe!
From Julia Ward Howe 1819-1910 by Elliott, Maud Howe
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.
