grandmotherly, a.
(ˈgrænd-, ˈgrænmʌðəlɪ)
[f. grandmother n. + -ly1.]
Pertaining to or befitting a grandmother. Now often fig. of government, legislation, etc.: Characterized by a trivial minuteness of detail in its regulations, as if the governed were children incapable of protecting their own interests.
| 1842 C. Whitehead Richard Savage (1845) III. vii. 390 But this device is grandmotherly. 1871 Daily News 7 Apr., They have abjured all attempt to rule Paris except by a grandmotherly kind of coaxing. 1874 Mrs. J. W. Horne Sex & Educ. 17 A good old grandmotherly doctrine, handed down from parent to child. 1880 Harper's Mag. LX. 914 ‘Now Jerome’, said Irene, in the advising grandmotherly manner she often assumed. 1883 Athenæum 8 Sept. 309/3 The enterprising traveller had set their rather grandmotherly regulations at defiance. 1888 Lowell Prose Wks. (1890) VI. 218 Those theories of grandmotherly government which led to our revolt from the mother country. 1889 Jessopp Coming of Friars vi. 277 There was no grandmotherly legislation in those days. |