Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To be or act as a mother to; treat in a motherly fashion.
  • noun Dregs; lees.
  • noun A stringy, mucilaginous substance which forms in vinegar during the acetous fermentation, and the presence of which sets up and hastens this kind of fermentation. It is produced by a plant, Mycoderma aceti, the germs of which, like those of the yeast-plant, exist in the atmosphere.
  • To become concreted, as the thick matter of liquors; become mothery.
  • noun A woman in relation to her child; female parent: also used of female animals in relation to their offspring.
  • noun That which has given birth to anything; source of anything; generatrix.
  • noun A familiar appellation or term of address of an old or elderly woman.
  • noun A title sometimes given to an abbess, and to other women holding an important position in religious or semi-religious institutions.
  • noun A hysterical malady.
  • noun The thickest plate, forming the body or principal part, of the astrolabe.
  • noun Same as mauther.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To adopt as a son or daughter; to perform the duties of a mother to.
  • adjective Received by birth or from ancestors; native, natural; ; also acting the part, or having the place of a mother; producing others; originating.
  • adjective (Biol.) a cell which, by endogenous divisions, gives rise to other cells (daughter cells); a parent cell.
  • adjective the original church; a church from which other churches have sprung.
  • adjective the country of one's parents or ancestors; the country from which the people of a colony derive their origin.
  • adjective (Chem.) the impure or complex residual solution which remains after the salts readily or regularly crystallizing have been removed.
  • adjective the mother of a reigning sovereign; a queen mother.
  • adjective The language of one's native land; native tongue.
  • adjective See Mother liquor (above).
  • adjective natural or native wit or intelligence.
  • noun A film or membrane which is developed on the surface of fermented alcoholic liquids, such as vinegar, wine, etc., and acts as a means of conveying the oxygen of the air to the alcohol and other combustible principles of the liquid, thus leading to their oxidation.
  • intransitive verb To become like, or full of, mother, or thick matter, as vinegar.
  • noun A female parent; especially, one of the human race; a woman who has borne a child.
  • noun That which has produced or nurtured anything; source of birth or origin; generatrix.
  • noun Familiar An old woman or matron.
  • noun The female superior or head of a religious house, as an abbess, etc.
  • noun obsolete Hysterical passion; hysteria.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of several species of small petrels, as the stormy petrel (Procellaria pelagica), and Leach's petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa), both of the Atlantic, and Oceanodroma furcata of the North Pacific.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the giant fulmar of the Pacific. See Fulmar.
  • noun (Med.) a congenital mark upon the body; a birthmark; a nævus.
  • noun Vulgar slang Same as motherfucker.
  • noun Slang A person or thing with some exceptional quality, as great size or power.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind.
  • noun nonstandard A cat that catches moths.
  • noun euphemistic, vulgar, slang motherfucker.
  • noun euphemistic, colloquial A striking example.
  • noun A (human) female who (a) parents a child or (b) gives birth to a baby. Sometimes used in reference to a pregnant female, possibly as a shortened form of mother-to-be (c).
  • noun A female parent of an animal.
  • noun figuratively A female ancestor.
  • noun figuratively A source or origin, viewed affectionately.
  • noun when followed by a surname A title of respect for one's mother-in-law.
  • noun figuratively Any elderly woman, especially within a particular community.
  • noun figuratively Any person or entity which performs mothering.
  • noun A film or membrane which is developed on the surface of fermented alcoholic liquids, such as vinegar, wine, etc., and acts as a means of conveying the oxygen of the air to the alcohol and other combustible principles of the liquid, thus leading to their oxidation.
  • verb transitive To treat as a mother would be expected to treat her child; to nurture.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a term of address for an elderly woman
  • verb make children
  • verb care for like a mother
  • noun a term of address for a mother superior

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Calque of Arabic أم (’umm, mother).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined from moth by analogy to mouser.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Shortened from motherfucker

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English moder, from Old English mōdor, from Proto-Germanic *mōdēr (compare West Frisian moer, Saterland Frisian Muur, Dutch moeder, German Mutter, Danish moder), from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr (compare Irish máthair, Latin mater, Albanian motër ("sister"), Tocharian A mācar, B mācer, Lithuanian mótė, Russian мать (mat'), Greek μητέρα (mitéra), Persian مادر (mâdar), Sanskrit मातृ (mā́tṛ)).

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Examples

  • While Suzanna didn't move from her place, she wanted to stay at some distance that she might look her soul's full at her mother -- _her mother_!

    Suzanna Stirs the Fire Emily Calvin Blake

  • It was different in Hella's case, first of all because she had such frightful cramps before it began so that her mother knew all about it without being told, and secondly because it was her _mother_.

    A Young Girl's Diary Anonymous 1897

  • My father did not always see when I was not able to listen to him, though he was most considerate when he did; but my mother -- why, to be with her was like being with one's own -- _mother_, I was actually going to write.

    The Vicar's Daughter George MacDonald 1864

  • But now -- now he will be taught to lie; and to hate what is good; and be brought up a Papist; and bidden to forget his mother -- his _mother_! '

    Penshurst Castle In the Days of Sir Philip Sidney Emma Marshall 1864

  • In _Coriolanus_, Shakespeare makes Volumnia the mother, and Virgilia the wife, of Coriolanus; but his _wife_ was Volumnia, and his _mother_

    Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook Ebenezer Cobham Brewer 1853

  • But when I am gone, dearest -- when my babes have no mother -- oh, go to _my mother_, and tell her -- tell her, William -- that it was the dying request of her Maria, that she would be as a mother to them.

    Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume XXIII Alexander Leighton 1837

  • The only impression that his mother ought to make on Carl is what I have already told him, -- namely, to respect her as _his mother_, but _not to follow her example in any respect_; he must be strongly warned against this.

    Beethoven's Letters 1790-1826, Volume 2 Ludwig van Beethoven 1798

  • Perhaps it might be _birth-dame_ for _mother_; let us stand over our mother that lies bleeding on the ground.

    The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 05 Miscellaneous Pieces Samuel Johnson 1746

  • Iizuka said he does not believe North Korea� claim that his mother was killed in a car accident in 1986. �alf of the investigation papers North Korea gave were blacked out and my mother� name was omitted.

    unknown title 2009

  • _divide families_, not to unite them; to rend kingdoms, not to knit them up; I am come _to set mother against daughter and daughter against mother_; I am come not to establish universal toleration, but universal

    Paradoxes of Catholicism Robert Hugh Benson 1892

Comments

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  • "Mother

    Tell your children not to walk my way

    Tell your children not to hear my words

    What they mean

    What they say

    Mother

    Mother

    Can you keep them in the dark for life

    Can you hide them from the waiting world

    Oh mother"

    January 2, 2007

  • One aspect of the triple goddess in Wicca

    See also maiden and crone

    February 17, 2008

  • An amazing song by John Lennon, too. Here's video of him performing it at Madison Square Garden.

    February 18, 2008

  • You know you're a mother when you count the sprinkles on each kid's cupcake to make sure they're equal.

    February 9, 2010

  • "n. A stringy, mucilaginous substance which forms in vinegar during the acetous fermentation, and the presence of which sets up and hastens this kind of fermentation. It is produced by a plant, Mycoderma aceti, the germs of which, like those of the yeast-plant, exist in the atmosphere."

    --from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

    June 7, 2017

  • If ruzuzu could drink what she'd druther

    It'd be some astringent or other.

    A natural quirk,

    Genetics at work

    In one who calls vinegar "mother."

    June 7, 2017

  • Haha! I'm a sucker for anything stringy and mucilaginous.

    June 7, 2017