Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The sister of one's father or mother.
- n. The wife of one's uncle.
- n. Used as a form of address for an older woman, especially by children.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The sister of one's father or mother; also, in address or familiar use, the wife of one's uncle.
- n. Formerly used by alumni of Oxford and Cambridge as a title for the “sister university.”
- n. An old woman; an old gossip.
- n. A procuress; a loose woman.
- n. The head so used.
Wiktionary
- n. a sister or sister-in-law of someone’s parent
- n. a person's grandparent's sister or sister-in-law.
- n. a grandmother.
- n. an affectionate term for a woman of an older generation than oneself, especially a friend of one's parents, by means of fictive kin.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The sister of one's father or mother; -- correlative to
nephew orniece . Also applied to an uncle's wife. - n. An old woman; and old gossip.
- n. A bawd, or a prostitute.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the sister of your father or mother; the wife of your uncle
Etymologies
- Middle English aunte, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin amita, paternal aunt.
Examples
“Not aunt," cried Oliver, throwing his arms about her neck, "I'll never call her _aunt_.”
“My brother says my aunt is a liar, she just wants to get us there," Viridiana says, rummaging through John's desk.”
The Washington Post: In Arizona, an illegal immigrant and her family face a stark choice
“And my aunt is a very optimistic person, so I gave Bessy that indomitable quality.”
“Honestly, I was curious about it, I wanted to see how they help people, because my aunt is a horder.”
Of Shoes And Ships And Sealing Wax And Hoarding Stuff And Things | Her Bad Mother
“They learn James went to Scotland with friends who know his aunt is a vampire; their fathers belong to belong to the Order of the Silver Palm who will use Olivia and James as expendable pawns to get the Blood Grail they think Reign has.”
Let the Night Begin-Kathryn Smith « The Merry Genre Go Round Reviews
“Since my aunt is a librarian we got 7 copies on the 1st day.”
“Thank God for the internet, and thank my dad for the laptop, at least I will not be bored till my aunt is here.”
“I cannot take you with me, because my aunt is the crossest woman alive, and never liked young people: but the hens will lay eggs for you; there is barley-meal in the barrel; and, as you have been a good girl, I'll tell you what to do when you feel lonely.”
“How happy I should be if I had a sister, for I have no one to talk to, no one to kiss me and play with me, and if ever I say I am sad my aunt is angry.”
“And the root of this unwillingness was pride, and an unforgiving remembrance of what she called her aunt's harshness to her.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘aunt’.
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 315 more...
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The Request Line
This is the place to add words you'd like Charles Harrington Elster to pronounce for you!
swingeing, affiant, dahlia, hydrangea, re, clematis, Nabokov, casu marzu, schadenfreudgeon, nefarious, mewl, manteion and 170 more...
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•Things That Escape When You Remove the G from ...
Its proximate cause is among the comments on aloot, but see also the open list Things That Get Way More Fun When You Add a "G" to Them.
aloot, gun ho, poo stick, bunhole, underdo, leapfro, lacier, bader, kinship, sonwriter, litter, loophobia and 74 more...
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Say It Right
Words that people pronounce in ways I wouldn't pronounce them.
often, palm, clitoris, aunt, vasectomy, interesting, headache, ask, row, ignominy, antimony, ptisan and 2 more...
sionnach It's Sunday afternoon in the Vatican. The pope is working on the Sunday crossword puzzle*. He's got most of the clues, but there's that pesky bottom left corner still to go.
Fortunately, since he's the pope, there's a bunch of cardinals hovering round to offer help. So he asks:
"Excuse me, your eminence, but I need a four-letter word for a 'female relative'".
"Certainly, Holy Father. Tell me, do you know any of the letters?"
"Why yes, actually. This word ends in U-N-T."
A moment's reflection from the cardinal:
"Why yes, Holy Father. I think the word you are looking for must be 'aunt'. A-U-N-T."
Pause.
"Thank you, your eminence."
Longer pause, followed by a sigh:
"Your eminence, do you have an eraser I could borrow?"
*: without invoking his powers of infallibility, natch. Apr 11, 2008
asativum Neat map, but too sparse representation in the Western states, it seems to me, to tell me much about some of these... Apr 11, 2008
pterodactyl See this map for American pronunciation. Apr 10, 2008
uselessness Pronounced like the bug. Y'know, I'm just setting the record straight. May 29, 2007