Biology dictionary

Aunt

1. The sister of one's father or mother; correlative to nephew or niece. Also applied to an uncle's wife.

aunt is sometimes applied as a title or term of endearment to a kind elderly woman not thus related.

2. An old woman; and old gossip.

3. A bawd, or a prostitute. Aunt sally, a puppet head placed on a pole and having a pipe in its mouth; also a game, which consists in trying to hit the pipe by throwing short bludgeons at it.

Origin: OF. Ante, f. Tante, L. Amita fathers sister. Cf. Amma.