mother cell (muTHersel)

See cell. mother-cloves (muth'èr-klōvz), n. See clove4. mother-country (muTH'er-kun'tri), n. 1. A country which has sent colonies to other countries: used in speaking of it in relation to its colonies.-2. One's native country.-3. A country as the mother or producer of anything. motherhood (muTH'er-hud), n. [ME. *moderhod, moderhede; A One morning he opened his door and beheld the vision of a woman going towards the breakfast-room in a robe de nuit, but which turned out to be one of the Mother Hubbards which have had a certain celebrity as Cotton, Burlesque upon Burlesque, p. 258. ( Davies .) street dre es in some parts of the West. C. D. Warner , Their Pilgrimage, p. 61. mothering (muTH'er-ing), n. [ mother1 + -ing1.] A rural custom of visiting one's parents and giving them presents on Mid-Lent Sunday: supposed to be derived from the custom in former times of visiting the mother church on that day. Also called midlenting . [Eng.] Alas, poor country!... It cannot Be called our mother , but our grave. Shak., Macbeth, iv. 3. 166. Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence. Milton, P. R., iv. 240. 3. A familiar appellation or term of addre of an old or elderly woman. But, mother , I did not come to hear Mr. Rochester's fortune; I came to hear my own. Charlotte Brontë , Jane Eyre, xix. 4. A title sometimes given to an abbe , and to other women holding an important position in religious or semi-religious institutions. Why should these ladies stay so long? They must come this way; I know the queen employs 'em not; for the reverend mother sent me word they would all be for the garden. Beau , and Fl ., Phil aster, ii. 2. 5. A hysterical malady. O, how this mother swells up toward my heart! IMG:content-0993.png:[blocks in formation]