Has anyone else heard this?

My friend (we are both in our very early 70s) will tell me she's just been "biddying about" at home: i.e.doing "old people" things like knitting, minding grandchildren, potting up plants etc.
I know I'm an old biddy but sometimes I forget I'm probably older than some of the people I might refer to as old biddies!

Old saying, also Old crusties!

A term I've heard (and used) throughout my life and I've lived all over England (as well as Aden, France, Singapore and Australia!)

We all, in Essex, use the expression “old biddies” My DM’s DM came from Lancashire

Boadicea

My friend (we are both in our very early 70s) will tell me she's just been "biddying about" at home: i.e.doing "old people" things like knitting, minding grandchildren, potting up plants etc.
I know I'm an old biddy but sometimes I forget I'm probably older than some of the people I might refer to as old biddies!

I love this 🤣🤣

Esmay

I think that it's rude .

It's not rude. I'm an old biddy. You can call me that, you can call me love or dear and I recently signed an email to a dear friend from childhood as from an 'old bint' and I've no idea where that one comes from, have you?

N.B. My username! I am reclaiming “crone” as a term of mature female power! I don’t feel I have reached “biddy” stage yet. But will be proud to achieve Biddydom! I think it’s a common term. Never thought it was derogatory but can be patronising, like “old boy” and “old girl” sometimes considered to be. The idea of “biddying about” appeals. I think I do that already!

We used to say this in Staffordshire where I grew up.

Its a London expression. One of my adult children used to live over the road from a care home and she told me her little one waves at the biddies. Little one called them the nannas.

I am 75 very soon, and I have heard that expression all my life, and I come from East London. I remember my mother-in-law saying it, but not my mother. I've said it myself before too, the problem is I am now one myself! Ha ha! Although of course old is always at least 10 years older than you yourself are, as we keep moving the goalposts to suit our age!

Cronesrule I haven't heard of biddying about and I don't like the sound of it.

We use this saying down south

We say that in Scotland too.

As an old biddy myself,I don't mind the expression - there are a lot more derogatory expressions out there for the elderly....

Yup. Used in Liverpool where I grew up.
Used of women not men.
Info in Graphite's post very interesting.
I always wondered why Scottish women used the endearment " Hen".
I'm sure that I used the term" old biddies" myself when I was younger
I might have been kinder had I realised that one day I would become one.🤣🤣🤣🤣

'Old biddy' was also used in the south west of England where I grew up. I've always thought it a patronising term used for an older woman. Not polite!

Yes used to that term,'old biddies' its northern use often still heard(both yorkshire& lancashire)& my late scottish mother- in-law also used it.So it appears to be known everywhere,generally,but not amongst the younger 'uns 😆

Lollipop1

Esmay

I think that it's rude .

It's not rude. I'm an old biddy. You can call me that, you can call me love or dear and I recently signed an email to a dear friend from childhood as from an 'old bint' and I've no idea where that one comes from, have you?

I think bint is Arabic.

Isn’t it originally from the Irish, I’m sure it’s a Christian name there? My Dad calls men of a similar age old codgers, so it’s not just older women who are labelled.

Old duffers was referring to to the old men,as was old codgers.

Yes,as was metioned,'biddy' also a nickname or shortened name for Bridget.

Nannan2

Yes,as was metioned,'biddy' also a nickname or shortened name for Bridget.

So an older version I guess of people now being called a Karen, which I don’t like at all, and my name is not Karen.

My friends and I use it a teeny bit ironically to describe things. So Biddy-pass for bus-pass, biddy discounts, got my comfy biddy-shoes on etc. It was used in the South when we were kids (never in a nice way) but I don't hear it much now - probably because I've joined the ranks of crones, codgers, oldies, farts, wrinklies etc. Eff 'em! They'll all get there soon enough. The young whipper-snappers as the oldies used to say.

Alison333

'Old biddy' was also used in the south west of England where I grew up. I've always thought it a patronising term used for an older woman. Not polite!

'Pet' is somehow patronising. As you age people tend to treat you as if you're senile. I have to bite my tongue as I know it's not meant as an insult.

My Dad used to call me Pet!