Word.ws English Dictionary

nannying

nannying is the present participle and gerund of nanny.

Meaning of nanny

Verb

nanny (third-person singular simple present nannies, present participle nannying, simple past and past participle nannied)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To serve as a nanny.
  2. (derogatory, transitive) To treat like a nanny's charges; to coddle.
    • In real life, says a Democratic campaign aide, members of Congress are too nannied by staff to stride about hatching plots, one-on-one.2013 February 21, “Unreality television”, in The Economist

See all 8 meanings of nanny

Noun

nannying (uncountable)

  1. Behaving with an excess of protective concern.
    • The subject is nannying. The test of whether a regulation is nannying depends on the above condition. For example, seatbelts & helmets are nannying; 30mph residential speed limits are not nannying (though some people consider this is).2005 August 28, DavidR, “Re: the nanny state”, in uk.rec.driving (Usenet)
    • On the other hand, there is far too much nannying nowadays, and probably the widespread use of anti-bacterial wipes for the kitchen, baby's highchair and everywhere else in the home is helping to spread MRSA and C-difficile in hospitals2007 May 23, Devon Mark, “Out-of-date food in UK supermarkets”, in uk.legal (Usenet)

Questions about nannying

What does nannying mean?
Nannying means behaving with an excess of protective concern.
What is nannying the present participle and gerund of?
Nannying is the present participle and gerund of nanny.
What part of speech is nannying?
Nannying is a noun.

Words near nannying in the dictionary

  1. nannygais
  2. Nannygate
  3. nannyghai
  4. nannygoat
  5. nannygoats
  6. nannying
  7. nannyish
  8. nannyism
  9. nannyless
  10. nannylike
  11. nano

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nannying (page history and authors); nanny (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “nannying.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nannying. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.