mammy
Informal. mother1.
Disparaging and Offensive. (formerly in the southern United States) a Black woman engaged to take care of white children or as a servant to a white family.
Origin of mammy
1usage note For mammy
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use mammy in a sentence
We all had our black mammies—they treated us as if we were their own babies.
The Soul of John Brown | Stephen GrahamI should do; I fancy I've—I awd say it's what gentlemen aften are unless their mammies whipped 'em as lads.
Bob, Son of Battle | Alfred OllivantAnd the real old uncles with white hair and the mammies with their heads tied up they said reminded them of "Aunty Bellum days."
The Annals of Ann | Kate Trimble SharberThese are what the mammies wear, she said arranging one of the kerchiefs about the lads head turbanwise.
Peggy Owen at Yorktown | Lucy Foster MadisonColored mammies rushed here and there seeking their charges.
The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays | Laura Lee Hope
British Dictionary definitions for mammy
mammie
/ (ˈmæmɪ) /
a child's word for mother 1
mainly Southern US a Black woman employed as a nurse or servant to a White family
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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