Mother (mŭ&thlig_;&etilde_;r), n. [OE. moder, AS. mōdor; akin to D. moeder, OS. mōdar, G. mutter, OHG. muotar, Icel. mōðir, Dan. & Sw. moder, OSlav. mati, Russ. mate, Ir. & Gael. mathair, L. mater, Gr. mhthr, Skr. māt&rsdot_;; cf. Skr. mā to measure. √268. Cf. Material, Matrix, Metropolis, Father.] 1. A female parent; especially, one of the human race; a woman who has borne a child.
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2. That which has produced or nurtured anything; source of birth or origin; generatrix.
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Alas! poor country! . . . it can not
Be called our mother, but our grave. Shak.
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I behold . . . the solitary majesty of Crete, mother of a religion, it is said, that lived two thousand years. Landor.
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3. An old woman or matron. [Familiar]
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4. The female superior or head of a religious house, as an abbess, etc.
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5. Hysterical passion; hysteria. [Obs.] Shak.
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Mother Carey's chicken (Zoöl.), 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 (Zoöl.), the giant fulmar of the Pacific. See Fulmar. -- Mother's mark (Med.), a congenital mark upon the body; a birthmark; a nævus.
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Mother, 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.
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The queen, to have put lady Elizabeth besides the crown, would have mothered another body's child. Howell.
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Mother, v. i. To become like, or full of, mother, or thick matter, as vinegar.
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