Definitions for mothering

• Definition
• Anagrams (517)

mothering moth·er·ing

Spelling: [muhth -er-ing]

IPA: /ˈmʌð ər ɪŋ/

Mothering is a 9 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 15 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 17 points.

You can make 517 anagrams from letters in mothering (eghimnort).

Definitions for mothering

noun

1. the nurturing of an infant or small child by its mother.
2. (in rural England) the custom of visiting one's parents on Laetare Sunday with a present.
3. a female parent.
4. (often initial capital letter) one's female parent.
5. a mother-in-law, stepmother, or adoptive mother.
6. a term of address for a female parent or a woman having or regarded as having the status, function, or authority of a female parent.
7. a term of familiar address for an old or elderly woman.
8. mother superior.
9. a woman exercising control, influence, or authority like that of a mother:
10. the qualities characteristic of a mother, as maternal affection:
11. something or someone that gives rise to or exercises protecting care over something else; origin or source.
12. (in disc recording) a mold from which stampers are made.

Idioms

1. mother of all, the greatest or most notable example of:

adjective

1. being a mother:
2. of, relating to, or characteristic of a mother:
3. derived from or as if from one's mother; native:
4. bearing a relation like that of a mother, as in being the origin, source, or protector:

verb (used with object)

1. to be the mother of; give origin or rise to.
2. to acknowledge oneself the author of; assume as one's own.
3. to care for or protect like a mother; act maternally toward.

verb (used without object)

1. to perform the tasks or duties of a female parent; act maternally:

Origin of mothering

First recorded in 1640-50; mother¹ + -ing¹

Examples for mothering

She says there's so much in her, and that she only wants 'mothering' to bring her out.

They seemed comfortable; gossipy they were, and fond of mothering the girls.

They are now raising a 5-year-old boy who Jennifer is incapable of mothering.

Katie continued to blog in excruciating detail, chronicling the worst parenting experience of them all—mothering a dying child.

Again he had to bear the mothering of her understanding eyes.

But the problem, says Badinter, is how those values have changed—morphing into a style of mothering she calls “crushing.”

The mothering instinct in her for the first time seemed to fail a little.

And then, of course, there was poor Hester Prynne—branded with a scarlet letter for mothering a child with another man.

It is the way with maids, the nearer they are to mothering the less they wish to hear of it.

And she certainly was a thoughtful and “mothering” sister to the little ones.