babushka

noun

1. An Eastern European old woman.

   “There was a 92-year-old babushka who was injured, and we put her on the stretcher and helped get her out.”

   “As a boy, I hand-made pelmeni with my babushka Alla, my hands and face covered in flour as we worked in the cold of my grandparents’ basement in Paterson, New Jersey.”

2. An Eastern European old woman.

   “I tell thee what, Babushka! I have no time to waste with thee in idle words.”

   “The young coachman […] not knowing how to treat the old woman: whether with deference as it seemed to him proper, because the old woman wore the same kind of attire as his babushka and the mother of his house did […]”

   “There they were, the devoted babushkas and dedushkas, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers of Bobby’s companions, lugging their bags, their bulging packages and bundles.”

   ““He and my babushka took an angry and confused teenager and taught her how to build herself up into a strong woman.””

3. A traditional floral headscarf worn by an Eastern European woman, tied under the chin.

   “White Parian bust of smiling Russian peasant woman - with babushka covering head, lovely detail work, 21½″ tall”

   ““Say hello to old Stanley,” he called as she pattered down the steps into the street, flung a babushka over her license plate and screeched away down Telegraph.”

   “The crowd falls silent, momentarily stunned, while a heavyset woman in a babushka pushes her way through, broadcasting the news […].”

4. A Russian doll, a matryoshka.

   “The present inhabitants of the Kremlin […] have rigged the Constitution in a series of articles which fit into each other like those wooden babushkas Russian peasants used to make, so that, as one shell after another is removed, the effective power finally resides in the tiny babushka in the inmost center.”