Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Mother?

\Moth"er\, n. [OE. moder, AS. m[=o]dor; akin to D. moeder, OS. m[=o]dar, G. mutter, OHG. muotar, Icel. m[=o][eth]ir, Dan. & Sw. moder, OSlav. mati, Russ. mate, Ir. & Gael. mathair, L. mater, Gr. mh`thr, Skr. m[=a]t[.r]; cf. Skr. m[=a] to measure. [root]268. Cf. {Material}, {Matrix}, {Metropolis}, {Father}.] 1. A female parent; especially, one of the human race; a woman who has borne a child. 2. That which has produced or nurtured anything; source of birth or origin; generatrix. Alas! poor country! . . . it can not Be called our mother, but our grave. --Shak. I behold . . . the solitary majesty of Crete, mother of a religion, it is said, that lived two thousand years. --Landor. 3. An old woman or matron. [Familiar] 4. The female superior or head of a religious house, as an abbess, etc. 5. Hysterical passion; hysteria. [Obs.] --Shak. {Mother Carey's chicken} (Zo["o]l.), 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 {O. furcata} of the North Pacific. {Mother Carey's goose} (Zo["o]l.), the giant fulmar of the Pacific. See {Fulmar}. {Mother's mark} (Med.), a congenital mark upon the body; a n[ae]vus.
\Moth"er\, a. Received by birth or from ancestors; native, natural; as, mother language; also acting the part, or having the place of a mother; producing others; originating. It is the mother falsehood from which all idolatry is derived. --T. Arnold. {Mother cell} (Biol.), a cell which, by endogenous divisions, gives rise to other cells (daughter cells); a parent cell. {Mother church}, the original church; a church from which other churches have sprung; as, the mother church of a diocese. {Mother country}, the country of one's parents or ancestors; the country from which the people of a colony derive their origin. {Mother liquor} (Chem.), the impure or complex residual solution which remains after the salts readily or regularly crystallizing have been removed. {Mother queen}, the mother of a reigning sovereign; a queen mother. {Mother tongue}. (a) A language from which another language has had its origin. (b) The language of one's native land; native tongue. {Mother water}. See {Mother liquor} (above). {Mother wit}, natural or native wit or intelligence.
\Moth"er\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Mothered}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Mothering}.] To adopt as a son or daughter; to perform the duties of a mother to. The queen, to have put lady Elizabeth besides the crown, would have mothered another body's child. --Howell.
\Moth"er\, n. [Akin to D. modder mud, G. moder mold, mud, Dan. mudder mud, and to E. mud. See {Mud}.] 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. Note: The film is composed of a mass of rapidly developing micro["o]rganisms of the genus {Mycoderma}, and in the {mother of vinegar} the micro["o]rganisms ({Mycoderma aceti}) composing the film are the active agents in the Conversion of the alcohol into vinegar. When thickened by growth, the film may settle to the bottom of the fluid. See {Acetous fermentation}, under {Fermentation}.
\Moth"er\, v. i. To become like, or full of, mother, or thick matter, as vinegar.