Noun

(en noun)

A mature woman; a wife or a widow, especially, one who has borne children; a woman of staid or motherly manners.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:your wives, your daughters, your matrons , and your maids

*(Thomas Fuller) (1606-1661)

*:grave from her cradle, insomuch that she was a matron before she was a mother

*

*:“A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron ; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable,.

A housekeeper; especially, a woman who manages the domestic economy of a public institution; a head nurse in a hospital.

:

Noun

(nannies)

A child's nurse.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=14 citation , passage=Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.}}

(colloquial) A grandmother.

A female goat.

* 1983 , Douglas H. Chadwick, A Beast the Color of Winter: The Mountain Goat Observed , Bison Books (2002), ISBN 0803264216, page 159:

Breeding is a consuming goal, and the ascendance of the sex drive is nearly as apparent in the behavior of a mountain goat billy. So given over is he to following and defending a succession of nannies as he searches for one in heat (estrus), he loses interest in food altogether;

* 2005 , Richard Cannings, The Rockies: A Natural History , Greystone Books (2005), ISBN 9781553651147, page 103:

Nannies and billies look very similar, both having dangerously sharp, curved black horns.

* 2013 , Janet Hurst, The Whole Goat Handbook: Recipes, Cheese, Soap, Crafts & More , Voyageur Press (2013), ISBN 9780760342367, page 28:

A farmer friend keeps a video camera in the barn so she can turn on her goat cam and observe her animals at any time of the day or night. A baby monitor picks up the sounds of a nanny' when she goes into labor—if the ' nanny is one who changes the usual pitch of her voice or nervously bleats during kidding.