1738 T. Lediard German Spy xxx. 286 People of Fashion are, however, generally so cautious, to have their Milk, as well as their Persons, examin'd by a Physician, or, at least, by the Granny of the Family.

1775 G. Washington Cash Accts. 18 Mar. in Papers (1995) Colonial Ser. X. 279 Contra... By my Mother of the Granny at her Quarters 0.10.0.

1794 G. Washington Let. in Writings (1892) XIII. 18 An application was made to me by Kate at Muddy hole..to serve the negro women (as a Grany) on my estate.

1857 New Orleans Med. News & Hosp. Gaz. 3 329 The worse than inefficiency of the ‘midwife’, or, in common parlance, the ‘granny’.

1888 A. C. Waghorne Wild Berries Newfoundland & Labrador 10 They [sc. juniper berries] are much in request by our ‘grannies’ for their ‘sick’ women.

1933 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 46 5 Some of the old granny-women still administer gunpowder and water to women in labor.

1964 R. D. Abrahams Deep down in Jungle i. i. 24 The Negro grandmother's importance is due to..her position as ‘granny’ or midwife among a simple peasant folk.

1981 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. lxviii. 64 The following words were used by older informants [in Carbonear, Newfoundland] only:..granny (midwife).

1992 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 8 Nov. 3/3 The various arrangements for midwifery..the traditional black ‘grannies’ of the American South.

1997 R. Porter Greatest Benefit to Mankind x. 273 Within polite circles first in England and then in North America, the traditional ‘granny midwife’ was now widely displaced by a male operator.

1776 J. Leacock Fall Brit. Tyranny iii. v. 30 He's one of your chimney corner Generals—an old granny.

1811 Raleigh Reg. & N.-Carolina Gaz. 11 Oct. One of the captains of her navy..had meanly condescended to let a French or an English officer interrogate him like an old Granny.

1846 W. B. Campbell Let. 28 Sept. in Tennessee Hist. Mag. (1915) June 145 Genl. Twiggs is an old granny and is unfit for a commander.

1887 T. Darlington Folk-speech S. Cheshire Granny, a simpleton: used of both sexes.

1897 Daily News 20 Dec. 8/5 Characterising the..officials as a set of what they called in Scotland grannies, a parcel of old women [etc.].

1930 ‘E. Queen’ French Powder Myst. xvi. 126 Worrying about Marion, I'll wager... Don't, Wes. You're acting like a granny.

1993 ‘A. McNab’ Bravo Two Zero (1994) ii. 26 I had been on the run for two days accompanied by three old grannies—two Navy pilots and an RAF loadmaster. You had to stay together as a group, and I couldn't have been cursed with a worse trio of millstones.

2009 Independent 15 Jan. 2/3 She had a brush with bad publicity when she dismissed angry share-holders in Railtrack as ‘grannies’.

1847 J. F. Cooper Crater II. x. 139 I teached you the difference between a flat-knot and a granny.

1898 A. Quiller-Couch in R. L. Stevenson St. Ives xxxiv. 283 He tied his knots into ‘grannies’.

1920 A. P. Herbert House by River iii. 41 He felt vaguely that something special in the way of knots was required..not a ‘granny’, anyhow.

1992 D. Morgan Rising in West ii. vi. 100 Jack tried tying grapes at the Franzi Winery in Ripon, but he made grannies instead of square knots and they let him go.

2010 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 2 Mar. a20/2 I have to..tie a reef knot. That means beginning to do what I've always done and then undoing it—reefing the granny, in other words.

1888 G. Trumbull Names & Portraits Birds 88 In New Jersey, at Pleasantville (Atlantic Co.), and Somers Point, Old Molly; at Atlantic City and Somers Point, Old Granny, and Granny simply.

1923 Misc. Circular (U.S. Dept. Agric.) No. 13. 24 Clangula hyemalis... Vernacular Names... In local use..Granny;..old-granny.

1982 R. Elman Hunter's Field Guide (rev. ed.) 235 On the Atlantic Flyway, the ‘grannies’ have traditionally supplemented scoters as winter targets for seagoing New Englanders.

2014 J. Sandrock & J. C. Prior Sci. Nomencl. Birds Upper Midwest 44 Common name: Long-tailed Duck... Other names: old-squaw, granny, scolder.

1981 Financial Times 14 Mar. 1/3 The bonds (presumably no longer to be known as grannies) should in time be made available to the whole population.

1981 Sunday Times 23 Aug. 45/6 (heading) ‘Grannies’ in lead.

1982 Sunday Times 10 Oct. 57/1 It's time to throw out your ‘grannies’—they are no longer earning their keep. The reason people are ditching their ‘grannies’ is plain to see.

1995 Sunday Mail (Nexis) 11 June 59 To begin with, you had to be over 60 to grab a granny. But since 1981 they have been available to all ages.

1899 County Gentlemen's Catal. 23 Dec. 1638/2 Betty's choice had wavered over a host of inviting pieces of furniture, from a modern Chippendale writing table and a padded granny arm-chair to a dainty Louis Seize screen.

1921 Manch. Guardian 10 Sept. 16/4 (advt.) Granny Armchair, covered in velvet.

1946 A. Koestler Thieves in Night 146 There were mattresses, saucepans, a cuckoo-clock, a granny-armchair, a bicycle and even a bird-cage.

2000 Tuam (County Galway) Herald & Western Advertiser 8 July 6/8 (advt.) For Sale: small fridge, electronic typewriter in case, guitar and dark grey granny armchair.

1880 Queen 10 July (advt.) The ‘Granny’ shade hat,..The ‘Granny’ collarette.

1879 Godey's Lady's Bk. Oct. 313/2 The ‘Grannie’ dress for children is one of the sweetest.

1909 Westm. Gaz. 3 Apr. 15/2 The best dressmakers are preparing what they call ‘Grannie’ dresses.

1966 Punch 29 June 946/1 The social columns continue to keep us informed in their eager girlish way about where the ‘in’ crowd are currently surging in their Granny dresses, Stalin caps, sawn-off skirtlets and mini-beards.

2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 30 June e7 The summer of '93 saw a profusion of flowery granny dresses, which were a whimsical revival of a quintessential hippie look of the 60's.

1965 N.Y. Times 24 Nov. 28/1 The new-again ‘granny’ glasses.

1968 ‘J. Hudson’ Case of Need iii. i. 171 She had a flower painted on her cheek, and large, blue-tinted granny glasses.

1970 Guardian 22 June 1/1 A mop-headed youth with granny glasses.

2003 Scotsman (Nexis) 22 Oct. 17 Sporters of Zapata moustaches and granny glasses.

1891 Cheshire Observer (Chester) 14 Mar. 2/4 I noticed a lovely ‘Granny’ gown for evening wear, suitable for a little damsel of seven.

1965 J. Hart File for Death iv. 31 The girl, dressed in a long granny gown and wearing a bright pink hairnet.

1995 ‘J. Churchill’ From Here to Paternity i. 9 She greeted the girls..before taking off her travel clothes and donning a comfortable flannel granny gown and fuzzy slippers.

1880 Aberdeen Weekly Jrnl. 10 July 2/2 A child of five with a ‘granny’ hat or bonnet on its fair curling hair is about as piquant a picture as a baby in spectacles.

1967 Boston Sunday Globe 23 Apr. A 28/3 These favorites will be offered along with the teens' ‘granny hats’.

1978 L. Kramer Faggots 78 Miss Rollarette, in tatty white organdy dress, a flat-topped granny hat with waving poppy, and his Tinkertoy magic wand, was resting his roller-skate-clad feet from the long run uptown from Pier 48.

2001 N.Y. Mag. 3 Dec. 60/1 Bundling up in style can be as easy as investing in new winter accessories—and this season, a granny hat is what you're after.

1961 Sunday Express 28 May 15/2 Small black-on-grey ‘Granny’ prints.

1993 Chatelaine (Canada) Mar. 6/2 Ralph Lauren gave grunge a more refined spin in his long, fluid granny-print dresses.

2014 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 13 Feb. e1 Missoni-on-acid zigzags..Mondrian squares; granny-print knickers, all designed by a California sportswear company specializing in golf duds.

1884 Birmingham Daily Post 1 Dec. 2/3 (advt.) Creme Lace Grannie Skirts, prettily trimmed, colour ribbons.

1923 Manch. Guardian Weekly 4 July 7/44 (advt.) Young Lady's Frock in Taffeta. The wide ‘Granny’ skirt is trimmed with three rows of ruching.

1966 H. W. Yoxall Fashion of Life viii. 76 In the autumn of 1965..girls in Los Angeles started a fad for wearing ‘granny’ skirts, down to their heels.

2014 Irish Independent (Nexis) 10 Jan. 38 Bin your mini—granny skirts are back with a vengeance this spring.

1959 Times 2 July 7/4 The perfect answer is for all local authorities to build some ‘Plus-Granny Annexes’—that is, small independent housing units attached to the side of ordinary family houses.]

1965 Times 9 July 22/3 (advt.) Plus ‘Granny Annex’ with bed sitting room, own bath room, kitchen.

1973 Country Life 14 June (Suppl.) 34/2 (advt.) New country property... ‘Granny Annexe’ of 3 rooms, kitchen and cloakroom.

1985 Newbury Weekly News 19 Dec. 29/7 Permission was granted..for a granny annexe and games room.

2006 Build It May 163/2 (advt.) 1 Conversion with OPP for conversion of stone farmyard building into residential dwelling with ancillary granny annexe accommodation.

1974 Irish Times 10 May 12/5 Most grannie bashing is the result of acute and very horrible forms of boredom and frustration.

1979 E. Deeping Caring for Elderly Parents vi. 116 ‘Granny-bashing’ is now well established on the list, along with ‘mugging’ and ‘football hooliganism’.

1981 Pulse 24 Oct. 45 (heading) Granny bashing signs are passing GPs by.

2009 Western Morning News (Plymouth) (Nexis) 29 May 18 If activities are there for them and they're guided towards them they'll take them up—it stops ‘granny bashing’ and mugging, it keeps the streets clear.

1975 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 23 Aug. 473/1 No evidence of ‘granny battering’ was found.

1975 G. Burston in Brit. Med. Jrnl. 6 Sept. 592/3 Perhaps general practitioners..and casualty officers..should become as conscious of granny-battering as they are now aware of baby-battering.

1984 M. Eastman Old Age Abuse 9 The term ‘granny battering’ has in recent years caught the imagination of the so-called helping professions as well as the media.

2007 Liverpool Daily Echo (Nexis) 14 June 13 It's more than feelings that get hurt. I'm not just talking about vile granny-battering. I'm talking vile, vile, granny and granddad raping.

1976 Financial Times 17 July 3/4 The Department has written a long article entitled ‘What to do about those Granny Bonds’ in its magazine Keypoints.

1977 Sunday Times 4 Sept. 71/5 The 1,200,000 pension-age people (men over 65, women over 60) who have money tucked away in National Savings Retirement certificates—now endearingly known as granny bonds.

1981 Times 31 July 1/7 Granny bonds are to be made available to everyone from September 7.

1984 Daily Tel. 17 Dec. 12/2 Bonuses on granny bonds not encashed..increased the value of investments by..£269 million.

2013 Times (Nexis) 6 June 58 He launched the ‘granny bond’ in an attempt to protect pensioners from inflation.

1879 All Year Round 5 Apr. 383/2 Her hideous tea-green dress and granny bonnet.

1894 Daily News 30 Oct. 6/6 Granny bonnets are revived.

1906 R. M. Watson Heart of Garden 63 Aquilegias... ‘Granny Bonnets’ the cottage folk call them.

1955 G. Grigson Englishman's Flora 302 Foxglove... Local names..granny bonnets, granny's gloves, Som.

1966 A. Batten & H. Bokelmann Wild Flowers Eastern Cape 104 Hermannia flammea... candicans... filifolia (Granny Bonnets).

1995 C. Wyatt Listening to Mozart 43 Sally has taken to wearing granny bonnets. She looks a little like the girl on the Dutch Cleanser label.

2014 Timaru Herald (Ν.Ζ.) (Nexis) 44 Oct. 14 Some very pretty crimson and white aquilegias (sometimes known as granny bonnets) that will shortly be coming into flower.

1997 Independent 17 Sept. 19/3 The other extreme to the naughty schoolgirl look is granny chic, another look that has been hawked about the catwalks since Prada rediscovered square-toe shoes and retro patterns.

2013 M. Sparks Falling Hard 34 ‘Is granny chic, like, a really popular look in London?’ Kelsey said, looking at Annie's new dress with a smirk.

1987 Times 8 Apr. 3/3 Delegates also expressed their concern about ‘granny dumping’... ‘Vulnerable old people are rushed into hospital and regarded as unwanted parcels with no pre-planning for appropriate placing in longer-term care.’

1995 Irish Times (Nexis) 30 Jan. 12 ‘Granny dumping’ in casualty and acute hospital wards..was a symptom of a ‘crisis in the elderly care services’.

2000 D. Mosler & B. Catley Global Amer. 75 The lack of services for the poor, the mentally ill,..the homeless, and the elderly creates a sense of general alienation. This results in social pathologies such as ‘granny dumping’—leaving infirm people at public hospitals and abandoning them to an uncertain future in the under-funded public health system.

2014 Nelson (N.Z.) Mail (Nexis) 10 Jan. 3 The emergency department at Nelson Hospital was not aware of any granny dumping occurring locally.

1946 Times 8 Nov. 5/3 A few ‘plus-granny’ flats should be included—that is, annexe flats adjoining dwellings for families.]

1959 Manch. Guardian 3 June 4/4 Officially known as ‘bed-sitting annexes’, the accommodation soon became nicknamed ‘grannyflats’.

1965 New Society 16 Sept. 22/1 The idea of ‘grannyflats’ was put forward..attached to family houses. These might well satisfy a widow or widower's desire for independence while enabling them to live in close contact with their family.

2004 E. Makis Eat, drink & be Married 33 Yiayia Annoulla, my namesake, lives in a granny flat, accessed through our living room.

1959 Better Roads May (verso front cover) (advt.) Now put her in old ‘granny gear.’—And go! Take her right up through all five forward gears.

1975 Washington Post 23 Feb. 52 A ‘granny gear’ is a sexist reference to a super-low gearing arrangement that allows even the weakest of cyclists to pedal up a pretty steep hill.

2006 Toro (Canada) Summer 110/3 A third inside chain ring (a.k.a. the granny gear)..means you can stay in the saddle all the way to the top of gruelling steeps.

1812 Trick for Trick ii. ii. 27 Slip my granny knots, I'm glad to see thee!

1890 D. C. Beard Amer. Boy's Handy Bk. ix. 81 Fig. 59, i shows a granny knot.

1931 R. Kipling Naval Mutiny 13 They'd been busy since light unpickin' the wire granny-knots the so-called Noo Navy had tied 'em in with.

2008 U. McGovern Lost Crafts (2009) 321 Forget about granny knots (an inferior sort of knot, similar to the reef knot but unsymmetrical, and apt to slip or jam).

1889 Notts. Guardian 26 Oct. 8/5 There is an attempt to introduce the time-old Granny muff, and with an incroyable toilette it looks elegant.

1897 Daily News 23 Jan. 6/3 The Granny-muffs have been found to be really less warm.

1921 Washington Post 2 Oct. 18/2 West End shops are now selling old-fashioned ‘granny’ muffs made to match coats and stoles.

1777 D. Lescallier Vocab. des Termes de Marine 102 Nœud de vache, A granny's bend.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Granny's bend, the slippery hitch made by a lubber.

a1989 S. Beckett Dream of Fair to Middling Women (1992) iii. 176 They go from intimacy to intimacy, that is to say, about them rises the marsh of granny's-bends that is their relation.

1905 Eng. Dial. Dict.: Suppl. 120/2 Granny's bonnet, the columbine, Aquilegia vulgaris.

1955 G. Grigson Englishman's Flora 153 Water Avens. Geum rivale L. Local names..Fairies' bath, granny's bonnet, Dor.

1984 J. Frame Angel at my Table (1987) xiv. 97 Going up the O's path past the granny's bonnets to the front door.

2000 Country Illustr. Apr. 106/2 (caption) The happy-go-lucky Granny's Bonnets, a variety of columbine..may become too much of a good thing, but who has the heart to turf them out?

2000 M. Hales Monastic Gardens vii. 133/2 Here there are purple granny's bonnets (Aquilegia vulgaris) and dark-yellow Welsh poppies (Meconopsis cambrica).

1979 Washington Post 15 Nov. f5/5 The children also should be expected to do more than granny-sit.

1997 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 7 Dec. 4 Baby-sit or granny-sit so someone else can get out of the house.

2006 Guardian (Nexis) 18 Nov. (Family section) 1 When the children come home from school, I ask them to grannysit so I can have a break.

1952 Times 29 Dec. 7/4 The distinct career of the granny-sitter is now entitled to notice.

1985 New Age Summer 19/3 They might have welcomed information about..a voluntary granny-sitter service.

2011 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 17 Nov. 33 It obviously makes financial sense, with more people to share the household expenses, and baby and granny sitters on the premises.

1972 Guardian 22 Aug. 5/7 A ‘granny-sitting’ service to relieve housebound relatives of handicapped people is needed.

1980 J. S. Siegel in Demography 17 355/1 Some incentives, such as tax rebates, and other social ‘supports’, such as more gerontic day-care centers and ‘granny sitting’ arrangements, will be needed.

2014 Times (Nexis) 17 Apr. 33 Every time my three daughters-in-law thank me for stepping into the breach (babysitting, outings for children, turning up hems) I remind them of their future duties (granny sitting, outings, lifts to outpatients).

1800 D. Lescallier Vocab. des Termes de Marine 91 Granny's knot.

1823 Trans. Apothecaries & Surgeon-Apothecaries Eng. & Wales 1 380 Sailors are well aware of the difference between a reef-knot which will not slip, and a granny's-knot.

1853 H. D. Thoreau Jrnl. 25 July (2000) VI. 270 I had been all the while tying what is called a Granny's knot.

1965 M. Young Miss MacIntosh, My Darling II. lxviii. 953 What did the hangman know of overhand and figure-of-eight and running bowline and bowline with a bight, cat's paw and granny's knot?

2009 F. Helwig Wildflowers, Wilderness & Wine 74 He has tied the baling twine in place with a granny's knot. I..begin the tedious job of unpicking the knot.

1863 Phytologist New Ser. 6 416 The Caltha palustris is called ‘May-blobs’ by the children who gather the flower in the meadows near Warwick; they also call the Wood Anemone (A. nemorosa) ‘Granny's Nightcap’.

1892 C. M. Yonge Old Woman's Outlook 119 The odd red-calyxed Geum rivale, called by the village children Granny's nightcaps.

1893 G. E. Dartnell & E. H. Goddard Gloss. Words Wilts. 69 Granny (or Granny's) Nightcap, (1) Anemone nemorosa,..Wood Anemone..(2) Aquilegia vulgaris,..Common Columbine..(3) Convolvulus sepium,..Great Bindweed..(4) Convolvulus arvensis,..Field Bindweed.

1905 Country Life 4 Nov. 645 Convolvulus sepium..is a favourite with children, who give it such odd names as ‘Granny's nightcap’ and ‘Lady's nightcap’.

1958 Gardeners Chron. 17 May 361/1 Aquilegia vulgaris, the common granny's nightcap, we have been obliged to banish to the wild garden.

1984 C. Loughmiller & L. Loughmiller Texas Wildflowers 203/2 (heading) Anemone decapetala Southern Anemone (Windflower, Granny's Nightcap).

2012 M. Draco Trad. Witchcraft Woods & Forests iv. 92 White swathes of wood anemones are found covering the woodland floor before the trees come into leaf. Also known as granny's nightcap and wind-flower.

1964 Oelwein (Iowa) Daily Reg. 2 July These sweaters fashioned of crocheted squares similar to the old ‘Granny squares’ are quite popular right now.

2006 Simply Knitting June 59/3 Granny squares are a great way to use up all those little scraps of yarn.

1986 Deb. House of Commons (Canada) 4 Feb. 10458/1 The exemption of 3 cents a litre [sc. of gasoline] will come off at the end of 1986 and another so-called granny tax of 1 cent a litre will be added..next year.

1993 Chicago Tribune 13 Apr. i. 1/6 The House GOP has proposed an alternative that would use surcharge money and cuts in social-service funding to kill the ‘granny tax’ on private-paying nursing-home residents.

2012 Guardian 22 Mar. 1/1 Labour accused the chancellor of funding this giveaway through a ‘granny tax’, pointing out 4.4 million taxpaying pensioners would lose on average £84 a year as a result of the plan to freeze their personal allowances.

1839 R. Dawes Nix's Mate I. vii. 168 Mistress Saultz..liked nothing so much as grannying, or, as she called it, seeing women comfortably lying in.]

1880 St. Louis Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 38 653 Physicians and midwives have been ‘grannying’ successfully..all classes of people..without ever being compelled to resort to instrumental delivery.

1897 R. M. Stuart In Simpkinsville 85 She grannied yore mother when you was born.

1942 Z. N. Hurston Dust Tracks on Road iii. 38 Therefore, the man who grannied me was back next day to see how I was coming along.

2006 E. S. Campbell in P. N. Minges Far More Terrible for Women 121 I's grannied over three hundred chilluns, an' I knows what I's talking about.