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Synonyms

old lady

American  

noun

Informal.

  1. a mother, usually one's own.

  2. a wife.

  3. a girlfriend or female lover, especially a female lover with whom one cohabits.

old lady British  

noun

  1. an informal term for mother 1 wife

  2. a large noctuid moth, Mormo maura, that has drab patterned wings originally thought to resemble an elderly Victorian lady's shawl

"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

Etymology

Origin of old lady

First recorded in 1775–85

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.

"One old lady pays me with a pint mug of tea and two slices of toast".

From BBC • Mar. 16, 2026

Read on: Want to be a rich old lady?

From MarketWatch • Jan. 16, 2026

To this, Oliver sarcastically replies, “No one needs your 17th-century old lady food and outdated social rules.”

From Salon • Nov. 1, 2025

"A taxi driver said: 'look, your old lady is coming up there.' I told her: 'don't move from there, I'm jumping in right now.' ... I swam out that way."

From Barron's • Oct. 16, 2025

They repeated the ritual, and Thorn turned into an adorable old lady, resembling Grandma Lilou down to the shiny silvery hair.

From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega

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.