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beldame

noun
/ˈbɛldəm/

Etymology

Inherited from late (1400–1450) Middle English beldame, beldam, from Middle English bel (“attractive, fine, good”) (from Old French bel (“beautiful”), from Latin bellus) + dame, dam (“a mother, lady”), itself ultimately from Latin domina (“a mistress, lady”).

  1. derived from domina
  2. derived from bellus
  3. derived from bel
  4. derived from bel
  5. inherited from beldame

Definitions

  1. A grandmother.

    • There he was welcom'd of that honeſt ſyre, / And of his aged Beldame homely well; / Who him beſought himſelfe to diſattyre, / And reſt himſelfe, till ſupper time befell.

  2. An old woman, particularly an ugly one.

    • Justice is an old hobbling beldame, and I can't get her to keep pace with Generosity, for the soul of me.
    • […] have a curiosity to hear my fortune told: therefore, Sam, order the beldame forward.
    • Therefore, the teacher of to-day is not the graybeard and beldame, but the man and woman most newly filled with the gathered experience of the world.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for beldame. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA