Definition of "mother"

He had something of his mother in him, but this was because he realized that in the end only her love was unconditional, and in gratitude he had emulated her.

1988, Robert Ferro, Second Son

The "Ritual to Celebrate Birthing" begins with a leader welcoming all participants : "Welcome to this celebration for N. She is approaching the time when she will become a mother for the first time (or become a mother again).

2005, Trudelle Thomas, Spirituality in the Mother Zone: Staying Centered, Finding God, Paulist Press, page 41

The antiabortion iconography in the last decade featured the fetus but never the mother.

1991, Susan Faludi, The Undeclared War Against American Women

To clone a boy, it is necessary to have a man as a DNA donor, a woman as an egg donor, and may be another woman as a surrogate mother.

, Multiplicity Yours: Cloning, Stem Cell Research, and Regenerative Medicine

If the cat to be cloned is female, the nucleus donor cat could also be used as the surrogate mother instead of another cat.

2023 January 16, Reinhard Renneberg, Biotechnology for Beginners, Academic Press, page 317

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

1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., chapter 3, in [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], Genesis iij:, folio iiij, verso

Alas poore Countrey, / Almoſt affraid to know it ſelfe. It cannot / Be call’d our Mother, but our Graue;

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii], page 147, column 1

But one in the place of God and not God, is as it were a falsehood; it is the mother falsehood from which all idolatry is derived.

1844, Thomas Arnold, Fragment on the Church, volume 1, page 17

How on earth are we supposed to hold our heads high as the ‘mother of parliaments’ when we allow to continue the practice of almost openly buying a seat in parliament?

2013 October 31, Rowena Mason, quoting David Steel, “Lord Steel criticises culture of spin and tweeting in modern politics”, in The Guardian‎

The great duel, the mother of all battles has begun.

1991, January 17, Saddam Hussein, Broadcast on Baghdad state radio.

A few minutes later we were all seated comfortably, Uncle Dave and mother, as he called his wife, myself and my husband, in the split-bottomed wooden chairs, on the vine-covered porch. / “Is Bethel a Methodist Church?” I asked. / Uncle Dave looked quizzically at his wife. “Do you hear that, mother?” he said.

1887 April 2, E. V. Wilson, “Uncle Dave”, in The Current, volume 7, number 172, page 432

On some days as he got near the house he would call out to his wife: / “Almighty Moses, Martha! who left the sprinkler on the grass?” / On other days he would call to her from quite a little distance off: “Hullo, mother! Got any supper for a hungry man?”

1922, Stephen Leacock, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town‎, page 152

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

1944, Walter Hackett, For the Duration: A Play for Junior and Senior High Schools, page 8

The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.

Judges 5:7, KJV.

Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Galatians 4:26, KJV.

O how this mother ſwels vp toward my hart […]

c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, [Act II, scene iv]

T.V. dicusseth tumors and mollifieth them, helps inflammations, rising of the mother and the epilepsie being burnt.

1665, Robert Lovel, Pambotanologia sive Enchiridion botanicum, page 484

The Root hereof taken with Zedoary and Angelică, or without them, helps the rising of the Mother.

1666, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physitian Enlarged, page 49

St Botolph's parish records ascribed three deaths to 'mother', an old name for the uterus.

1979, Thomas R. Forbes, “The changing face of death in London”, in Charles Webster, editor, Health, Medicine and Mortality in the Sixteenth Century, published 1979, page 128

Q's sister, Debbie, had mothered two kids by the time she was twenty, with neither of the fathers in sight.

1998, Nina Revoyr, The Necessary Hunger: A Novel, Macmillan, page 101

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.

2010, Lynette Joseph-Bani, The Biblical Journey of Slavery: From Egypt to the Americas, AuthorHouse, page 51

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.

c. 1900, O. Henry, An Adjustment of Nature

Iron rusted, paper cracked, cream soured and vinegar mothered.

1968, Evelyn Berckman, The Heir of Starvelings, page 172

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.

2013, Richard Dauenhauer, Benchmarks: New and Selected Poems 1963-2013, page 94

Stick a votive candle in it and fire that mother up, right?

1989 December 19, Slim Randles, “Entrepreneur Hopes Luminaria Delivery Service Catches On”, in The Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, New Mexico, page 2

Who run this mother

2011, Beyoncé Knowles (lyrics and music), “Run the World (Girls)”, in 4‎

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.

1964, Richard L. Newhafer, The last tallyho

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.

1980, Chester Anderson, Fox & hare: the story of a Friday night, page 5

Basically, we wind up with a program. One mother of a complex application.

2004 Nov, Rajnar Vajra, “The Ghost Within”, in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, volume 124, number 11, page 8

Josh, whose fleshy face resembles a rhino's - beady wide-set eyes blinking between a mother of a snout

2006, Elizabeth Robinson, The true and outstanding adventures of the Hunt sisters