Definition of "babushka" [babushka]

• A woman's head scarf, folded triangularly and worn tied under the chin. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Father Tikhon would not confirm this relationship; church rules don't allow him to say whether a babushka is confessing to him, never mind Russia's president."
• "Many Russian grandmothers wear scarves on their heads-hence the odd porting of the word babushka in America to refer to a head scarf itself."
• "He called her babushka, or grandmother, as a sort of joke, although she wasn't much older than him."