grandmotherly
Americanadjective
Usage
What does grandmotherly mean? Grandmotherly is an adjective that most commonly means like a grandmother. It’s especially used in a positive way to describe someone as being kind, nurturing, and protective—like a good grandmother who loves and cares for her grandchild(ren).Describing someone as grandmotherly often implies that they listen and give good advice—it’s perhaps most commonly used in the phrase grandmotherly advice. Grandmotherly is most often used to describe grandmothers themselves, but it can be applied to someone who’s not a grandmother, as in After my grandmother died, I started relying on my Great Aunt Jane for grandmotherly support. Grandmotherly is one of many similar adjectives based on family relations, including motherly, fatherly, grandfatherly, brotherly, and sisterly.Example: Many of my most important life lessons came in the form of grandmotherly advice from my kindly Grandma Rose.
Other Word Forms
- grandmotherliness noun
Etymology
Origin of grandmotherly
First recorded in 1835–45; grandmother + -ly
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 grandmotherly driving of today’s Waymos conjures images of two, excessively polite Midwesterners locked at an intersection, each beckoning the other to go first, back and forth in perpetuity.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 7, 2025
As the sickly, septuagenarian Meir, Mirren packs fierce authority, grandmotherly warmth, touching uncertainty and wry resignation into an uncharacteristically stooped and heavily padded frame.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 24, 2023
Younger people in England grew up with Elizabeth as an already aged, grandmotherly figure.
From Seattle Times • May 5, 2023
No judgment, only grandmotherly hugs, snacks and a tornado of empathy.
From Salon • Apr. 19, 2023
Then came the response from Cambridge, the grandmotherly decree that this was acceptable, but Bailey would be going to Harvard, of course.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
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.
