mother

1. 1

   A female parent, especially of a human; a female who parents a child (which she has given birth to, adopted, fostered, etc).

   • I am visiting my mother any moment.
   • The lioness was a mother of four cubs.
2. 2

   A pregnant female; mother-to-be; a female who gestates a baby.

   • Nutrients and oxygen obtained by the mother are conveyed to the fetus.
3. 3

   A female who donates a fertilized egg or donates a body cell which has resulted in a clone.

4. 4

   A female ancestor.figuratively

   • And Adã called his wyfe Heua⸝ becauſe ſhe was the mother of all that lyveth
5. 5

   A source or origin.figuratively

   • Near-synonym: matrix
   • The Mediterranean was mother to many cultures and languages.
6. 6

   Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind. (See mother of all.)

   • Near-synonym: Big One
   • 1991, January 17, Saddam Hussein, Broadcast on Baghdad state radio. The great duel, the mother of all battles has begun.
7. 7

   A title of respect for one's mother-in-law.dated

   • Mother Smith, meet my cousin, Doug Jones.
8. 8

   A term of address for one's wife.dated

   • (Mr. Hill enters. He crosses to Wife.) / Mr. Hill: Hello, mother. […] How are you? / Mrs. Hill: Nothing wrong, dear, I hope.
9. 9

   Any elderly woman, especially within a particular community.figuratively

   • Near-synonyms: matron, matriarch
10. 10

    Any person or entity which performs mothering.figuratively

    • Judges 5:7, KJV. The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.
    • Galatians 4:26, KJV. Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

syn. dam · mater · matriarch · mother · Mother · Colloquial or slang synonyms: · ma · mam · mama · mamaw · mamma · mammaw

ant. father · daughter · son · child · offspring

1. 1

   To give birth to or produce (as its female parent) a child. (Compare father.)transitive

   • Q's sister, Debbie, had mothered two kids by the time she was twenty, with neither of the fathers in sight.
   • Zilpah, Leah's maid, mothered two sons for Jacob, Gad and Asher. Leah became pregnant once more and had two more sons, Issachar, and Zebulun, and a daughter, Dinah, thus Leah had seven children for Jacob.
2. 2

   To treat as a mother would be expected to treat her child; to nurture.transitive

   • She had seen fewer years than any of us, but she was of such superb Evehood and simplicity that she mothered us from the beginning.
3. 3

   To cause to contain mother (“that substance which develops in fermenting alcohol and turns it into vinegar”).transitive

   • mothered oil, mothered vinegar, mothered wine
4. 4

   To develop mother.intransitive

   • Iron rusted, paper cracked, cream soured and vinegar mothered.
   • Your lamp was always polished, wick trimmed, waiting; yet the bridegroom somehow never came. Summer dust settled in the vineyard. Grapes were harvested; your parents crushed and pressed them, but the wine mothered.

1. 1

   Motherfucker.euphemisticmildlyslang

   • (Burn, baby, burn) Disco inferno / (Burn, baby, burn) Burn the mother down
   • Stick a votive candle in it and fire that mother up, right?
2. 2

   A striking example. (Appears as "mother of a(n) __".)colloquialeuphemistic

   • November, 1943 If ever, Cortney Anders promised himself, I get out of this mother of a thunderstorm there is a thing I will do if it is the last act of my life.
   • Some hot night there's gonna be one mother of a riot down here. Just wait." He'd been saying the same thing since 1958, five years of crying wolf.

syn. dam · mater · matriarch · mother · Mother · Colloquial or slang synonyms: · ma · mam · mama · mamaw · mamma · mammaw

ant. father

1. 1

   Alternative form of moth-er.alt-ofalternative

   • Often used in jest to describe rare or special moths one has seen in one’s trap, perhaps repeatedly, of which one knows for sure fellow mothers will be envious.

syn. dam · mater · matriarch · mother · Mother · Colloquial or slang synonyms: · ma · mam · mama · mamaw · mamma · mammaw

ant. father