grandam
Americannoun
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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
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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
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"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 Henry Cabot Lodge
Mayhap the speech of my good grandam might mislead thee into thinking me but a sorry flirt.
From The Fifth of November A Romance of the Stuarts by Charles S. Bentley
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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.