baba

plural babas

1. alsouncountableusuallyA kind of sponge cake soaked in rum-flavoured syrup.

   1 more example

   The trolley of fresh local cheeses, including the region's pride, mozzarella di bufala, is as attractive as the trolley of classic Neapolitan desserts, including pastiera napolitana (a ricotta cake with orange rind), feather-light baba, and, in mid-March, zeppola di San Giuseppe (whose feast day is March 19), a sweet bun filled with custard and black cherry.

   1994 May 1, Maureen B. Fant, “CHOICE TABLES; Tastes Swing Back To Flavors of Naples”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 May 2015

2. countableusuallyespecially among people of Eastern European ancestryA grandmother.

   2001, Brattleboro Remembers, edited by the Brattleboro [Vermont] Historical Society, Arcadia Publishing I walked first for my grandmother, and my mother was sorry she had missed my first steps. My Baba was so proud, my mother later told me.

   2 more examples

   My baba, Ksenia Dubinsky, tells me that my education makes her proud.

   1993, Karen Dubinsky, Improper Advances: Rape and Heterosexual Conflict in Ontario, 1880-1929, University of Chicago Press

   As we made eye contact, I slowly began to wonder if she was Baba. I did not know my grandmother though I'd spoken with her several times on the telephone;

   2004, MaryBeth Bond, editor, A Woman's Europe: True Stories

3. broadlycountableusuallyAn old woman, especially a traditional old woman from an Eastern European culture.

   Only two women, typical "babas" (peasant women) in the house from which I got my quilt and bedcloth, could be coaxed to pose;

   1914, Russell Sage Foundation, Wage-earning Pittsburgh

   2 more examples

   Laura hadn't known that anyone's mother could look like that, like the babas you sometimes saw downtown, bandaged in kerchiefs and aprons, sitting toothless in stockinged feet on small verandahs, peeling potatoes or beets or just shaking their heads and grimacing.

   1986, Janice Kulyk Keefer, The Paris-Napoli Express

   According to some, new volunteers are becoming more difficult to recruit and there are dark suggestions that 'money is being made on the backs of the babas', the dedicated, but ageing ladies who still spend countless hours of their time preparing foodstuffs for the occasion.

   2003, Colin Michael Hall, Liz Sharples, editors, Food Tourism Around The World: Development, Management and Markets

4. countableusuallyespecially among people of Indian or Chinese ancestryA father.

   "Do not be disrespectful, son. Look at me." "Baba, were you a Savaki?"

   2003, House of Sand and Fog (movie)

   3 more examples

   The first time I signed my exercise I wrote "Pisistratus Caxton" in my best round-hand. "And dey call your baba a scholar!" said the Doctor, contemptuously.

   1849, Edward Bulwer Lytton, The Caxtons

   "The greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter. I've missed you so." "I've missed you too, baba."

   1998, Mulan (movie)

   Okay. Okay. Fine, baba. Let's just do it before something else goes wrong.

   2002, Bend It Like Beckham (movie)

5. HinduismSikhismcountableusuallyIslamA holy man, a spiritual leader.

   While I was in Port Alberni, three babas came to Canada to raise money ...

   1995, Hugh J.M. Johnston, Tara Singh Bains, The Four Quarters of the Night: The Life-Journey of an Emigrant Sikh

   2 more examples

   But according to Ray, 'all the babas my uncle knew were genuine. None of them was exposed. They were fairly humble people, not show-offs like the Maharishi ...

   2004, Andrew Robinson, Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye: The Biography of a Master Film-Maker

   Most babas had little contact with written culture and are not therefore named in books and treatises.

   2006, Suraiya Faroqhi, Subjects Of The Sultan: Culture And Daily Life In The Ottoman Empire

6. BritishIndiacountableusuallyA baby, child.

   For my child is dead—my baba is dead!

   1904, Rudyard Kipling, Traffics and Discoveries

   1 more example

   That is to say, if I do not take care, I shall go on calling my darling 'Baba' till she is as old as her mamma, and has a dozen Babas of her own.

   1876, Sir George Otto Trevelyan, The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay

7. countableusuallyIn baby talk, often used for a variety of words beginning with b, such as bottle or blanket.

   Oh, it's storytime! Let me get my baba.

   2004, House (TV, episode 1.14)

plural Babas

1. IndonesiaMalaysiaSingaporeA male Peranakan.

1. Synonym of Set (“Egyptian god”).

   Synonyms: Set

1. abbreviationbusinessAbbreviation of Alibaba.

   As a result, PDD’s market cap has soared to $195.9 billion, eclipsing Alibaba’s (BABA) $190.5 billion. It’s the first time PDD has surpassed its older rival, according to data provider Refinitiv Eikon.

   2023 November 30, Michelle Toh and Laura He, “‘Pay any price.’ Alibaba’s Jack Ma urges reform as rival rattles e-commerce giant”, in CNN Business