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.
Now some are saying the safety guardrails the big AI companies put on their models lead to a kind of nanny state.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 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 is so committed to frequent business trips that she home-schooled her children and brought them, plus a nanny, along when they were younger.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2026
The Department of Homeland Security said it would investigate allegations that Rep. Eric Swalwell hired an undocumented nanny.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026
During that week also, Queenie’s darling elegant French nanny, her lady mother’s constant companion, in a fit of maternal compassion began to knit Queenie a pullover.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
