English

Proper noun

Nanny

1. A diminutive of the female given name Ann or Anne.

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English Nanny in the 19th century.

Proper noun

Nanny

1. A female given name.

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from English Nanny in the 19th century.

Proper noun

Nanny

1. A female given name.

English

Noun

nanny ‎(plural nannies)

1. A child's nurse.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess:

     Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.

2. (colloquial) A grandmother.
3. A female goat.
   • 1983, Douglas H. Chadwick, A Beast the Color of Winter: The Mountain Goat Observed, Bison Books (2002), ISBN 0803264216, page 159:

     Breeding is a consuming goal, and the ascendance of the sex drive is nearly as apparent in the behavior of a mountain goat billy. So given over is he to following and defending a succession of nannies as he searches for one in heat (estrus), he loses interest in food altogether; […]

   • 2005, Richard Cannings, The Rockies: A Natural History, Greystone Books (2005), ISBN 9781553651147, page 103:

     Nannies and billies look very similar, both having dangerously sharp, curved black horns.

   • 2013, Janet Hurst, The Whole Goat Handbook: Recipes, Cheese, Soap, Crafts & More, Voyageur Press (2013), ISBN 9780760342367, page 28:

     A farmer friend keeps a video camera in the barn so she can turn on her goat cam and observe her animals at any time of the day or night. A baby monitor picks up the sounds of a nanny when she goes into labor—if the nanny is one who changes the usual pitch of her voice or nervously bleats during kidding.

Synonyms

• (female goat): nanny goat

Translations

Derived terms

• nanny state
• manny (male nanny)

Verb

nanny ‎(third-person singular simple present nannies, present participle nannying, simple past and past participle nannied)

1. (pejorative) To treat like a nanny's charges; to coddle. [From the mid-20th c.]