grandfather

noun

1. 1

   A father of someone's parent.

   Grandfather, Father, and Son. The Father diſſeiſeth the Grandfather and dies, the Son endows the Mother, the Grandfather dies, the Son may enter upon the Mother; for he hath a new Right deſcended to him from the Grandfather, for the Grandfather might have entred upon the Mother, ſo ſhall his Heir.

   Lineal conſanguinity is that which ſubſists between perſons, of whom one is deſcended in a direct line from the other: as between John Stiles (the propoſitus in the table of conſanguinity) and his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, and ſo upwards in the direct aſcending line; or between John Stiles and his ſon, grandſon, great-grandſon, and ſo downwards in the direct deſcending line.

   My grandfather’s clock was too large for the shelf.— / So it stood ninety years on the floor; / It was taller by half than the old man himself, / Though it weighed not a pennyweight more. / It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born, / And was always his treasure and pride; / But it stopp’d short—never to go again— / When the old man died.

   Those numbers take on added significance when he thinks about his relationship with his grandfather, who just turned 90 this year. […] What happens then is kids are “deprived of grandmothers (maybe increasingly grandfathers, too) who are comfortable in their own skin, aging gracefully and being a good role model to kids, showing that growing old is not the worst thing that can happen to a woman.”

2. 2

   A male forefather.

3. 3

   The archived older version of a file that immediately preceded the father file.

   File C is the grandfather because it was used to create file B.

   Three generations of file are usually kept, being the grandfather, father and son files.

   The file from which the father was developed with the transaction files of the appropriate day is the grandfather.

verb

1. 1

   To be, or act as, a grandfather to.

verb

1. 1

   To retain discontinued laws or rules for (an object, individual or organization previously affected by them).

   Had the original work been permitted, it would be grandfathered into any code changes each time they occurred, Arvada officials said. The latest came in 2006.

   Old power plants are sometimes grandfathered from having to meet new clean air requirements.

   With the signing of the Medical Devices Amendment to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic in 1976, the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] gained regulatory authority over [breast] implants, but the existing Cronin-Gerow implants were grandfathered, making them exempt from the new legislation.

   In practice, most of the regimes reviewed by the FHTP [Forum on Harmful Tax Practices] during its early years and which were abolished were either terminated without grandfathering or included grandfathering within this maximum five-year period.

Forms

plural

grandfathers

past tense

grandfathered

past participle

grandfathered

present participle

grandfathering

third person singular

grandfathers