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| Language: | Old English |
| Origin: | modor |
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moth‧er1 S1 W1
[countable]
[countable]1 a female parent of a child or animal : 
His mother and father are both doctors.Goodnight, Mother. Mother said they'd met at university. If food is scarce, the mother will feed the smaller, weaker chicks.
His mother and father are both doctors. mother of two/three etc (=mother of two/three etc children) Janet is a full-time teacher and a mother of two.
Janet is a full-time teacher and a mother of two.Goodnight, Mother.Mother said they'd met at university.If food is scarce, the mother will feed the smaller, weaker chicks. mother cat/bird/hen etc (=an animal that is a mother)
2 to care for someone as if you were their mother : She's like a mother to them. If they need anything she always helps out.
be (like) a mother to somebody
She's like a mother to them. If they need anything she always helps out.3 if someone behaves like a mother hen, they try to protect their children too much and worry about them all the time
like a mother hen
4 to learn something when you are a very young child : the prayers which he had been taught at his mother's knee
learn/be taught something at your mother's knee
the prayers which he had been taught at his mother's knee5
the mother of something
a) the origin or cause of something : Westminster is known as 'the mother of parliaments'. Necessity is the mother of invention (=people have good ideas when the situation makes it necessary).
Westminster is known as 'the mother of parliaments'.Necessity is the mother of invention (=people have good ideas when the situation makes it necessary).b) informal a very severe or extreme type of something, usually something bad :
6 spoken especially American English something very large and usually very good : a real mother of a car
a real mother of a car7 American English taboo spoken motherfucker
