Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The father of one's mother or father.
- n. A forefather; an ancestor.
- v. To exempt (one involved in an activity or business) from new regulations: The new ordinance restricts the size of billboards, but it grandfathers those erected before 1997.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A father's or mother's father; an ancestor in the next degree above the father or mother in lineal ascent: correlative to grandson, granddaughter, and grandchild.
Wiktionary
- v. To retain existing laws or rules only for those people or organisations that were previously affected by them, and apply new laws or rules to the unaffected people or organisations.
- n. A father of someone’s parent.
- n. by extension A male forefather.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A father's or mother's father; an ancestor immediately after the father or mother in lineal ascent.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the father of your father or mother
Etymologies
- From grandfather clause (Wiktionary)
- V., from grandfather clause. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“For example, whereas the Hebrew phrase for my grandfather' was sav-í grandfather + 1st person singular possessive', in Israeli it is sába shel-ì grandfather of me'.”
“In the first book, Three Wishes, Rose, the main character, an orphan who falls into a real-life fairytale when she discovers her grandfather is a wealthy French count, starts a blog, also called Three Wishes, for an English assignment.”
“Your child will grow up to learn his grandfather is the guy who helped orchestrate the torture program in Amercia, destroying American credibility in the process, and who also obtained an apology from a man who he shot in the face.”
“Thankfully my grandfather is the kind of observant person who notices that sort of thing, had he not, it could have been very bad.”
what is your closest call to a bad experience while hunting?
“Trace – I happened to know your grandfather is an expert at his blackberry and he was only foolin with Peter.”
“One of the few memories I have of my grandfather is his sweet tea recipe: one scoop of powdered tea, one cup of ice, and about twenty cups of sugar, mixed in while drinking.”
“Synopsis: A boy goes hunting with his grandfather where he learns the truth about why his grandfather is a war hero.”
“I know a little, – just a tiny bit about old china and porcelains, because my grandfather is awfully interested in them and has collected quite a lot.”
“Your grandfather is there with many of his friends; some of them became friends of mine.”
“With this view Henry summoned the bishops at Westminster (1 October, 1163) to sanction certain as yet unspecified articles which he called his grandfather's customs”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘grandfather’.
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EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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#1
Words I Like
abide, sashay, microbial, scented, nature, amorphous, unknown, imagine, photogenic, soft, silken, history and 188 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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Carolina on my mind
The best town names in North Carolina. There are so many to choose from!
havelock, kill devil hills, beargrass, ahoskie, blowing rock, waxhaw, oriental, albemarle, earl, banner elk, pink hill, grandfather and 10 more...
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unwell
pheochromocytoma, tumor, adrenaline, gland, endocrine, neurological, hormone, imbalance, heart, palpitation, sweating, headache and 74 more...
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aarolilja's list
serenity, owl, apple, lush, envy, Lemuria, kaospilot, zookeeper, asphalt, dahlia, fuck, grandfather and 7 more...
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The Doctor... Doctor who?
"Just the Doctor."
(My attempt at a Doctor Who list, as requested by plethora.)doctor, master, companion, time lord, tardis, dalek, cyberman, brilliant, fantastic, jelly baby, human, alien and 30 more...
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Are We Not Men?
man, male, masculine, macho, dude, guy, manly, boy, father, gentleman, monsieur, fellow and 34 more...
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What's Your Name, Neighbor?
feed, scratch, bride, spine, hoof, vessel, neighbor, tatters, grackle, crumble, slave, tooth and 38 more...
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Webs
Words about relations.
novercal, phratry, stirps, spindle kin, kinnery, ashram, filiation, phratria, deme, apparentation, homology, spear kin and 41 more...
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It's All Relative
parent, child, sibling, mother, father, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, aunt, uncle, cousin and 22 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for grandfather.
oroboros A correspondent of the Drawer is involved in domestic perplexities. He writes:
‘I got acquainted with a young widow, who lived with her step-daughter in the same house. I married the widow; my father fell, shortly after it, in love with the step-daughter of my wife, and married her. My wife became the mother-in-law and also the daughter-in-law of my own father; my wife’s step-daughter is my step-mother, and I am the step-father of my mother-in-law. My stepmother, who is the step-daughter of my wife, has a boy: he is naturally my step-brother, because he is the son of my father and of my step-mother; but because he is the son of my wife’s step-daughter so is my wife the grandmother of the little boy, and I am the grandfather of my step-brother. My wife has also a boy: my step-mother is consequently the step-sister of my boy, and is also his grandmother, because he is the child of her step-son; and my father is the brother-in-law of my son, because he has got his step-sister for a wife. I am the brother of my own son, who is the son of my step-mother; I am the brother-in-law of my mother, my wife is the aunt of her own son, my son is the grandson of my father, and I am my own grandfather.’
– Harper’s Magazine, April 1865 (via futilitycloset.com) May 5, 2010