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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
motherly
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ "Don't worry," Laura said in a gentle motherly way.
motherly advice
▪ a kind, motherly woman
▪ Miss Gilbert was motherly but firm, an excellent teacher for the lower forms.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ All Molly's motherly instincts erupted when she saw what it was.
▪ But motherly warmth turns cold beside the journalistic revulsion the Molinari gambit provokes.
▪ Charles found himself muttering to the motherly dresser, who handed him his hat.
▪ From an attitude of generosity, warm feeling and motherly goodness, she now had shifted into a mood of high hilarity.
▪ If images do not appear as motherly they can not be Goddesses.
▪ Impotently, she held both her arms wide in a gesture of motherly love, as though this would comfort him.
▪ Marguerite was not exactly a motherly woman, but she was in some way comfortable.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Motherly

Motherly \Moth"er*ly\, a. [AS. m[=o]dorlic.] Of or pertaining to a mother; like, or suitable for, a mother; tender; maternal; as, motherly authority, love, or care.
--Hooker.

Syn: Maternal; paternal.

Usage: Motherly, Maternal. Motherly, being Anglo-Saxon, is the most familiar word of the two when both have the same meaning. Besides this, maternal is confined to the feelings of a mother toward her own children, whereas motherly has a secondary sense, denoting a care like that of a mother for her offspring. There is, perhaps, a growing tendency thus to separate the two, confining motherly to the latter signification. ``They termed her the great mother, for her motherly care in cherishing her brethren whilst young.''
--Sir W. Raleigh.

Motherly

Motherly \Moth"er*ly\, adv. In a manner of a mother.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
motherly

Old English modorlic "pertaining to a mother;" see mother (n.1) + -ly (1). Meaning "befitting a mother" is from mid-13c. Related: Motherliness.

Wiktionary
motherly

a. Befitting a mother, warm, caring, nurturing, protective, loving.

WordNet
motherly
  1. adj. befitting a mother; warm and nurturing

  2. adv. in a maternal manner; as a mother; "she loved her students almost maternally" [syn: maternally]

Wikipedia
Motherly (film)

Motherly is a 2009 Belgian comedy-drama film directed by Philippe Blasband. The film tells the story of Viviane, who after the death of her mother, gets visits from her ghost.

The film received two nominations at the 1st Magritte Awards.

Usage examples of "motherly".

At the beginning of their acquaintance her interest in Markham had not been unlike that of the motherly hen in the doings of the newly hatched duckling with which she differed as to the practical utility of duckponds.

Her eyes reflected her dashed dreams, and her motherly concern for a son that might grow up a beggar.

Dair and Frain and my motherly affection for the pair of them, land aches and blisters, and grumbling on rainy days, and a feeling that each of us could depend on the others.

He had pulled the curls over his eyes, and tied up his face with a great handkerchief over the cap, as Gruffy has been doing lately when she had the face-ache, and he went about among the little chaps in such a motherly, bustling way, it was quite affecting.

My Lady, with that motherly touch of the famous ironmaster night, lays her hand upon her dark hair and gently keeps it there.

She then remembered the daily increase of stiffness in his figure: and a reflection upon his patient waiting, and simpleness, and lexicographer speech to expose his minor needs, touched her unused sense of humour on the side where it is tender in women, from being motherly.

Tom Loker we left groaning and touzling in a most immaculately clean Quaker bed, under the motherly supervision of Aunt Dorcas, who found him to the full as tractable a patient as a sick bison.

The Signora, a big raddled motherly Neapolitan, welcomed Monique like a long lost child and seemed surprised when we insisted on a separate room for her.

EIGHT The firm ground felt tilting and unnatural after the motherly rocking of the Lady of the Lea, and Barnacle was inclined to roll from side to side as he followed the girl along the cart track that led away from the quayside.

Motherly Faith went round with a duster and Marge set the photocopier humming.

She started to protest, but Longarm was already explaining it all to the fatter Mexican gal, and she agreed in a motherly way that a kid with a raw throat would do better on a double helping of cascos de guayaba con queso, while the two ladies might fancy more modest servings of arroz con pollo, seeing they were new at the game.

She knew Charity by sight and tut-tutted in a motherly way when she saw the eye, wondering why Professor Wyllie-Lyon, usually so placid and unflappable, was so concerned.

She treated me in a motherly, free-and-easy way: not half so deferentially as she treated John Halifax.

And the both of you in my arms -- and legs -- was a wonderful motherly feeling.

Looking across the anchorage, through the low day, he could see a clutch of small craft, minesweepers, minelayers and two torpedo boats, with a large motherly vessel alongside.