auntie
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈæn.ti//
- United Kingdom//ˈɑːn.ti//
- //ˈɐn.ti//
Term of familiarity or respect for a middle-aged or elderly woman.
noun
- 1
Term of familiarity or respect for a middle-aged or elderly woman.
- 2
Female domestic helper.
- 3
slangAn elderly gay man.
- 4
Also a form of auntDiminutive of aunt.
Etymology
Etymology tree English aunt Proto-Germanic *-j-, *-ij- Proto-West Germanic *-i, *-ī Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English -ie English auntie From aunt + -ie.
verb
- 1
To be or behave like the aunt of.
In the same melodrama, Madame Rotschild, a supporting character plays a similar role by "auntying" all children as a rich and powerful woman who can solve most problems in children's own homes.
More and more children are being "auntied" by women in the community who feel it is their duty as mothers to care for parentless children.
She had had only one unmitigated success in bending the girl to her will over the many years she'd auntied her: She had peeled the dialect right olf Lina's tongue.
“I am the best auntie of any auntie that has ever auntied,” she'd say, and in doing so reshape herself into the image her community needed to see.
Forms
- plural
- aunties
- past tense
- auntied
- past participle
- auntied
- present participle
- auntying
- third person singular
- aunties
auntie · Term of familiarity or respect for a middle-aged or elderly woman.
Auntie · The BBC.aura · A subtle emanation or exhalation of any substance, such as an…Aura · A diminutive of the female given name Aurelia, from Latin.