granny
Americannoun
-
grannies
plural
-
Informal. a grandmother.
-
an elderly woman.
-
a fussy person.
-
Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S. a nurse or midwife.
adjective
-
of, relating to, or thought to be like a grandmother or an elderly or old-fashioned woman.
granny notions about what's proper.
-
(of clothing for women or girls) being loose-fitted and having such features as high necklines, puff sleeves, long skirts, and ruffles and lace trimmings.
a granny blouse; a granny nightgown.
noun
-
informal words for grandmother
-
informal an irritatingly fussy person
-
a revolving cap on a chimneypot that keeps out rain, etc
-
a midwife or nurse
-
See granny knot
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of granny
1655–65; grand(mother) + -y 2, with -nd- > -nn-
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.
See Examples For:
Her look evolves from a worn-out cog to a biker-like granny who’d seem natural riding on the back of Dennis Hopper’s hog.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2026
From her embarrassing work mishaps, to her infamous granny pants, Bridget spoke to a generation who saw themselves in her - and has recently won over a whole new set of younger fans too.
From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2025
Her boss knows she travels a lot, often as the granny on call.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2025
"Junk food was something that we looked up to because my granny didn't always have money, so it was a token of celebration."
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2025
“What information? Don’t tell me your granny is missing.”
From "Louisiana's Way Home" by Kate DiCamillo
"Being around children keeps you young. Happy kids, happy mums, happy grannies!"
From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2025
“We thought, ‘This is a game of diminishing returns and we will be playing grannies.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2024
Squibb has played plenty of cackling grannies; even so, Ms. Sturak is her most unhinged.
From New York Times ● Apr. 11, 2024
The Duchess of York was recently saying, "I can picture us being grannies together."
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2023
But all the grannies were looking at me, waiting for me to pray, so I prayed, stumbling through as best I could.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
Even in the granniest of granny gears, it’s impossible for me to pedal smoothly up pitches with grades approaching, and sometimes exceeding, 13 percent.
From Washington Post ● May 27, 2022
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.
