babushka

noun ba·bush·ka \ bə-ˈbüsh-kə , -ˈbu̇sh- , ba- \

Updated on: 6 May 2018

1 a : a usually triangularly folded kerchief for the head

b : a head covering (such as a scarf) resembling a babushka

2 a : grandmother

Until my own babushka's generation very specific clothes were assigned to specific classes, specific hairstyles distinguishing married from unmarried women.
—Francine du Plessix Gray

b : an elderly Russian woman

… I jostled among babushkas clutching bags of food for a place on the bus …
—Gary Lee

See babushka defined for kids

Examples of babushka in a Sentence

an elderly Russian woman with a babushka

Recent Examples of babushka from the Web

Instead of hats, the Moscow crew favors silk babushka-like headscarves and, on sunny days, teeny-tiny sunglasses.

— style du monde, Vogue, "The Best Street Style From Russia Fashion Week Fall ’18," 12 Mar. 2018
Russian concept store owner Olga Karput also kicked back in style, hanging out like a Vetements babushka with a head kerchief and floral gloves.

— liana satenstein, Vogue, "The Best Fashion Instagrams of the Week: Kim Kardashian West Wears Sparkly Underwear, Bella Hadid Channels the Future," 27 Jan. 2018
Other noteworthy moments: Solange should be inspiring your alt mirror selfies, Lili Sumner looks great in a purple coat even in front of an inappropriate backdrop, and Nadia Lee Cohen made a case for a silk babushka.

— liana satenstein, Vogue, "The Best Fashion Instagrams of the Week: Everyone is On Vacation, Supreme is Big in Russia, and Solange Takes a Mirror Selfie," 12 Aug. 2017
Meredith Arwady unleashes her huge contralto as the comic babushka Amelfa.

— john von rhein, chicagotribune.com, "Steve Jobs opera in Santa Fe shows a troubled tech wizard in search of his humanity," 8 Aug. 2017
Liberals in the United States have always had good things to say about socialism, which is communism’s prettier younger sister who doesn’t wear a babushka or have a hairy mole on her cheek.

— christine flowers, Philly.com, "When did Russia become a friend of America?," 13 July 2017
All languages borrow words from other languages — Americans may recognize agitprop, sputnik, babushka or cosmonaut.

— david filipov, Washington Post, "Russians are fighting the war of words against the U.S. with American words," 26 Apr. 2017
Wearing a scarlet knot of lipstick like a Matryoshka doll, with her hair frequently wrapped in a babushka scarf, her appearance — like her clothes — is a million miles from that of Rubchinskiy’s.

— alexander fury, New York Times, "Back in the U.S.S.R.: Russia’s Fashion Resurgence," 18 Apr. 2017
And just in case one quest wasn’t enough for you, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn embeds quests inside your quests, like a Russian babushka doll.

— jason schreier, WIRED, "Golden Sun: Dark Dawn," 29 Nov. 2010

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'babushka.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.