old woman
293
1.0
- noun
- /oʊld ˈwʊmən/
:
mujer mayor
- The old woman sat on the porch, telling stories from her childhood.
- year-old woman
- a very old woman
- 60-year-old woman
But there's this older woman who, like, writes him checks.
- But there's this older woman who, like, writes him checks.
- Which is you're talking to older women, just getting their wisdom.
- He was single and befriended this old woman who had a lot of money.
- That old woman, that old woman, she is absolutely amazing.
- And she pours it into this old woman's hands.
- And I'm like, Jesus Christ, we are older women.
- But it is more common in in women and in older women.
- I and I, I plan on being a really old woman and I'm still surrounded by his love.
- He comes to this old woman's house and then murders her, rips her into pieces.
- I often found myself head over heels with the older women I was working with, which was strange.
- So something that gets commented on a lot is how often I make old woman jokes about myself.
- I was talking about the old woman who wants to roll her shoulders while closing her eyes.
Examples
-
Ben saw a sneering policeman shove an old woman who lagged behind the crowd.
Academic text (2011) -
You don't go down to the fields; the old woman won't let you.
Fiction book (1990) -
That old woman, that old woman, she is absolutely amazing.
-
But an old woman needs time on her own to recover.
-
Look, an old woman on a cellular telephone.
-
"Daughter-in-law, come here!" comes the voice of an old woman from the inner room.
Fiction book (1990) -
In a sudden move, he crawled past the old woman and out the hole into the night.
Fiction book (1990) -
She listened to the wise old woman teaching her.
-
He was single and befriended this old woman who had a lot of money.
-
An impressive and formidable older woman: that is what Beauvoir grew to be.
Academic text (1993)
Synonyms
175
1.0
A person who is much older than most adults
162
3.1
An older person who is respected for age and experience
47
1.0
An older woman who is your grandmother or a friendly older family member
24
4.2
An older woman who seems gentle and harmless
20
5.0
A loving old-fashioned word for the mother of your parent
11
1.7
A person in the later years of life
8
7.6
A person who is between eighty and eighty-nine years old
6
7.2
A person who is at least 100 years old
5
9.5
An informal rude word for an older woman who is tough and speaks her mind
3
7.6
A person who is clearly past middle age
2
8.6
A person who is 70 to 79 years old
1
9.7
A loving name for an older woman used like a grandmother
1
9.5
An older woman who is friendly and likes to chat
1
5.1
A person who has done a job or activity for many years and knows it well
1
4.2
A person who gets regular money from the government after they stop working because of age
1
9.9
An extremely old person people call jokingly or rudely
A respected older person with grey hair who gives advice
A person aged between 70 and 79
Antonyms
How Old
293
1.0
519
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
A B1 learner who knows 'old' and 'woman' will interpret the phrase as referring to an elderly female human, so the plant meaning (a herbaceous species) cannot be derived from the literal constituents. This is a lexicalized folk name for a plant and thus language- and culture-specific, making the MWE's meaning unpredictable from its parts.
Etymology
Old woman comes from simply joining old and woman to describe a woman who has lived many years. Because people picture grey hair and slow steps, the phrase came to mean 'a woman who is elderly'.