a nurse or nursemaid for children
any person or thing regarded as treating people like children, esp by being patronizing or overprotective
( as modifier )
the nanny state
a child's word for grandmother
(intr) to nurse or look after someone else's children
(tr) to be overprotective towards
1785–95; nursery word; compare Welsh nain grandmother, Greek nánna aunt, Russian nyánya nursemaid
A nanny is a full-time babysitter, someone whose job is taking care of a family's children. If you're a lucky kid, your nanny will be like Mary Poppins or Maria from "A Sound of Music." Being a nanny goes beyond hourly childcare — a nanny is usually the person who spends the most time with a baby or child. A nanny might feed, bathe, play with, and otherwise care for a toddler, or drive an older child to ballet lessons. Most nannies work in the child's home, sometimes even living there. A completely different definition of nanny is "female goat." The word's origin is probably as a nickname for Ann, a generic woman's name, though it's also traditionally used for "close female adult," such as an aunt.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I hired a team of baby nurses and later a nanny.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
“It’s like a nanny state, or helicopter parenting.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
Latifi interviewed the former weekend nanny of a prominent influencing family who never saw her work acknowledged online.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
She instigated the new restrictions, and rejects accusations of them being nanny state.
From BBC ● May 3, 2026
I mention my sweater’s advent here because I think of it as part of the endgame—as though my poor loving nanny is a sort of Mme.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
Astin succeeds The Nanny series star Fran Drescher, who steered the organization through the Hollywood strikes of 2023 during her four-year tenure.
From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2025
Bad Nanny will be available on BBC iPlayer from Monday 12 May and the first episode will air on BBC One Northern Ireland on Wednesday 14 May at 22:40 BST.
From BBC ● May 11, 2025
The women taking Hidalgo’s course as part of We Rise Nanny Training in Brooklyn have no intention of being defenseless.
From Seattle Times ● May 15, 2024
"The Nanny" veteran's speech fired up the 160,000 SAG-AFTRA members going on strike after 98% of the union's membership authorized the action in June.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2023
I took two little girls with me, my daughter, Nanny, and her best friend, Allison Mitchell.
From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
Once procured, the infants were taken to a house in Pontianak where they were taken care of by hired nannies.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Aviv reports on Filipina women who move to the United States to work as nannies and send money home to their families.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Along with day camp and traditional day care, the credit can be used for expenses such as nannies and babysitters, said Andy Phillips, vice president of the Tax Institute at H&R Block.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026
When she wakes one day on her Yesteryear Ranch seemingly in 1855 without electricity, modern medicine or her team of nannies, her throwback lifestyle gets all too real.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
On Saturday when I was at the park with Erlan and his brothers and sisters and two of their nannies, I saw Darren Ackleman throwing a football with his dad.
From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
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.
