granny
Americannoun
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Informal. a grandmother.
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an elderly woman.
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a fussy person.
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Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S. a nurse or midwife.
adjective
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of, relating to, or thought to be like a grandmother or an elderly or old-fashioned woman.
granny notions about what's proper.
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(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
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informal words for grandmother
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informal an irritatingly fussy person
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a revolving cap on a chimneypot that keeps out rain, etc
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a midwife or nurse
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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
He added that he hoped his granny would recover enough to be able to come to his house on Christmas Day.
From BBC ● Dec. 18, 2025
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
Handing me what he had done, Grandpa said, “Now, son, git this here thang down under some water. Yore granny always soaks roses under water fore she puts’m in a pitcher.”
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Squibb has played plenty of cackling grannies; even so, Ms. Sturak is her most unhinged.
From New York Times ● Apr. 11, 2024
These glamorous grannies are modelling for social media.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2024
The Duchess of York was recently saying, "I can picture us being grannies together."
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2023
On occasion, the grannies do more than help out at bus stations.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 17, 2023
The old grannies my mom hired to look after me while she was at work?
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.
