Meanings
- uncountableThe quality of being grandfatherly.
[…]; the collector’s voice gradually deepened over the years to a granular, all-forgiving grandfatherliness.
1982, John Updike, Bech Is Back, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 62 more examples
Past presidential styles have varied from the laconic leadership of [Calvin] Coolidge, to the calm grandfatherliness of [Dwight D.] Eisenhower, to the boyish exuberance of [John F.] Kennedy.
1988, Stephen [H.] Hess, The Presidential Campaign, 3rd edition, Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, page 23At the front counter, Archer bought two Cokes. The glass kind, he said when I came up beside him. He spun the bottle in his hand, and I figured he probably wasn’t allowed to drink Coke. Far as I can tell, that’s what relationships come to—a giant game of what can I get away with. They’re the best I said, and he offered the second bottle, and I took it. A touching gesture of grandfatherliness, or I’m being cynical.
2013, D. W. Wilson, Ballistics, Bloomsbury
Origin
Cite this entry
grandfatherliness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/grandfatherliness
“grandfatherliness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/grandfatherliness. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “grandfatherliness,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/grandfatherliness.
Source: grandfatherliness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.