Beldame

//ˈbɛldəm// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A grandmother. obsolete

    "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. 2
    a woman of advanced age wordnet
  3. 3
    An old woman, particularly an ugly one. archaic

    "Justice is an old hobbling beldame, and I can't get her to keep pace with Generosity, for the soul of me."

  4. 4
    an ugly evil-looking old woman wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
cronehagbeldambeldambutterfacecarline

Example

More examples

"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."

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”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.