old biddy
6
9.9
- noun
- /oʊld ˈbɪdi/
- Slur
:
vieja metiche
- The group of old biddies chatted loudly about the latest neighborhood gossip.
Examples
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Who was the old biddy who clobbered me on the head with the teapot?
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That nosy old biddy always wants to know everyone's business.
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Bunch of old biddies playing cards.
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We thought the old biddy had a few bucks, but not a fortune.
Fiction book (1995) -
Vince, watch out for the old biddy.
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Lord, I'm babbling away like some old biddy at a tea party!
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Out with it, you old biddy, or I'll have your guts for garters.
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Miserable, cheating old biddy.
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Nosy old biddy.
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You're nothing but a clutch of bickering old biddies, ineffectual and obstructionist.
Synonyms
3
9.9
An unpleasant, bossy older woman who scolds people
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'biddy' already denotes a nosy, meddling older woman and adding 'old' simply reinforces the age and derogatory sense, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the meaning. This follows a standard adjective + noun composition pattern that is cross-linguistically common, making the phrase transparently compositional.
Etymology
Old biddy may come from an old word biddy that meant a small hen or chicken. People pictured a little hen pecking and fussing, so calling a woman an old biddy suggested a 'fussy, nosy, unpleasant old woman'.