• IPA: /ˈbɛldəm/

beldame (plural beldames)

1. (obsolete) A grandmother.
   • c. 1597, [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fovrth; […], quarto edition, London: Printed by P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, OCLC 932916628 ↗, [Act III, scene i] ↗:

     Diſeaſed nature oftentimes breakes forth, / In ſtrange eruptions, oft the teeming earth / Is with a kind of collicke pincht and vext, / By the impriſoning of vnruly wind / Within her vvombe, vvhich for enlargement ſtriuing / Shakes the old Beldame earth, and topples down / Steeples and moſſegrovvn towers.

2. (now archaic) An old woman, particularly an ugly one.
   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin 2006, p. 6:

     Suddenly the beldam shrieks as if she's been stuck with a dagger, long rasping insuck of breath: ‘Eeeeeeeee!’

• (ugly woman) crone, hag, harridan
• See also Thesaurus:ugly person