grandee
Americannoun
noun
-
a Spanish or Portuguese prince or nobleman of the highest rank
-
a man of great rank or eminence
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of grandee
1590–1600; < Spanish, Portuguese grande, with ending assimilated to -ee
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.
The prime minister wanted to send this Labour grandee to Washington.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
Starmer has apologized for hiring the Labour Party grandee, and Mandelson has quit the House of Lords—the British Parliament’s upper chamber—amid a police investigation into whether he shared market-sensitive information with the financier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026
Ms. Cheever began to understand that his stories came at least partly from the tension between his private feelings of shame and the effort to maintain his respectability as a literary grandee and paterfamilias.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2025
She is "right to accurately emphasise diversion", the grandee said.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2025
He dressed impeccably and had the manners of a grandee.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
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.
