Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The quality of being motherly.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The state or quality of being motherly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The property of being
motherly .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the quality of having or showing the tenderness and warmth and affection of or befitting a mother
Etymologies
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Examples
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The teacher whose influence is felt most and lasts longest is the one whose "motherliness" supplements her academic acquirements and supplies a sympathetic understanding of the child.
Vocational Guidance for Girls Marguerite Stockman Dickson
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This same element of "motherliness" it was, which gained her the respectful attention of an audience of the roughest and most ignorant Cornish miners up in Caribou, who would listen to no other woman speaking upon the subject.
History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) Matilda Joslyn Gage 1862
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But the motherliness which is in every true woman's heart, warded off this danger.
History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) Matilda Joslyn Gage 1862
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"motherliness" of her aspect she was almost as speedy a ship as the brigantine, although she had by this time shortened down to her two topsails and fore-topmast staysail.
A Middy of the Slave Squadron A West African Story Harry Collingwood 1886
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Her motherliness was best exhibited when she stood for justice and refused to bless the Kauravas before the Kurukshetra war and remained strong and steadfast in her anti-war cum pro-justice position.
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Withal, she was sheerly feminine, tender and soft and clinging, with the smouldering passion of the mate and the motherliness of the woman.
Chapter 2 2010
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The Virgin Mary added motherliness and femininity to the image of the divine.
Archive 2010-06-01 David McDuff 2010
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The Virgin Mary added motherliness and femininity to the image of the divine.
Mirjam Tuominen - 10 David McDuff 2010
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And even though she's grown up and has her own life to live, I have some mother's guilt that I'm not usually around when she needs me -- when Blair wishes I were there to hug her tight, to simmer a pot of Southern greens, or wrap her in my motherliness.
Beth Arnold: Letter From Paris: Travels with My Daughter 2009
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Maria, given us by God, in the sweetness of the face of a child, look upon this family that is your very own and in your motherliness, grant perennial youth to our hearts.
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Esther G. 2009
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