The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mother \Moth"er\ (m[u^][th]"[~e]r), 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.]
A female parent; especially, one of the human race; a woman who has borne a child.
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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. An old woman or matron. [Familiar]
The female superior or head of a religious house, as an abbess, etc.
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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 Oceanodroma 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 birthmark; a n[ae]vus.