mother

Forms

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.
- He had something of his mother in him.
2.A female who donates a fertilized egg or donates a body cell which has resulted in a clone.
- My mother is a psychology teacher.
- My mother carefully opened the door.
- My mother has been sick since last month.
3.A female ancestor.
- My mother is a psychology teacher.
- My mother carefully opened the door.
- My mother has been sick since last month.
4.A pregnant female; mother-to-be; a female who gestates a baby.
- Nutrients and oxygen obtained by the mother are conveyed to the fetus.
- The antiabortion iconography in the last decade featured the fetus but never the mother.
- If the cat to be cloned is female, the nucleus donor cat could also be used as the surrogate mother instead of another cat.

1.To give birth to or produce (as its female parent) a child. (Compare father.)
- 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.To treat as a mother would be expected to treat her child; to nurture.
- 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.To cause to contain mother (“that substance which develops in fermenting alcohol and turns it into vinegar”).
4.To develop mother.
- Iron rusted, paper cracked, cream soured and vinegar mothered.

Very common· #279

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr

Proto-Germanic *mōdēr

Proto-West Germanic *mōder

Old English mōdor

Middle English moder

English mother