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. mh`thr, 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which has produced or nurtured anything; source of birth or origin; generatrix. [ 1913 Webster ]

Alas! poor country! . . . it can not
Be called our mother, but our grave. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

I behold . . . the solitary majesty of Crete, mother of a religion, it is said, that lived two thousand years. Landor. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. An old woman or matron. [ Familiar ] [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The female superior or head of a religious house, as an abbess, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Hysterical passion; hysteria. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Mother Carey's chicken (Zool.), 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 (Zool.), the giant fulmar of the Pacific. See Fulmar. --
Mother's mark (Med.), a congenital mark upon the body; a birthmark; a naevus. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To become like, or full of, mother, or thick matter, as vinegar. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

The queen, to have put lady Elizabeth besides the crown, would have mothered another body's child. Howell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Akin to D. modder mud, G. moder mold, mud, Dan. mudder mud, and to E. mud. See Mud. ] A film or membrane which is developed on the surface of fermented alcoholic liquids, such as vinegar, wine, etc., and acts as a means of conveying the oxygen of the air to the alcohol and other combustible principles of the liquid, thus leading to their oxidation. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The film is composed of a mass of rapidly developing microorganisms of the genus Mycoderma, and in the mother of vinegar the microorganisms (Mycoderma aceti) composing the film are the active agents in the Conversion of the alcohol into vinegar. When thickened by growth, the film may settle to the bottom of the fluid. See Acetous fermentation, under Fermentation. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Received by birth or from ancestors; native, natural; as, mother language; also acting the part, or having the place of a mother; producing others; originating. [ 1913 Webster ]

It is the mother falsehood from which all idolatry is derived. T. Arnold. [ 1913 Webster ]

Mother cell (Biol.), a cell which, by endogenous divisions, gives rise to other cells (daughter cells); a parent cell. --
Mother church, the original church; a church from which other churches have sprung; as, the mother church of a diocese. --
Mother country, the country of one's parents or ancestors; the country from which the people of a colony derive their origin. --
Mother liquor (Chem.), the impure or complex residual solution which remains after the salts readily or regularly crystallizing have been removed. --
Mother queen, the mother of a reigning sovereign; a queen mother. --
Mother tongue. (a) A language from which another language has had its origin. (b) The language of one's native land; native tongue. --
Mother water. See Mother liquor (above). --
Mother wit, natural or native wit or intelligence. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Shortened from motherfucker as a euphemism. ] 1. Same as motherfucker. [ Vulgar slang ] [ PJC ]

2. A person or thing with some exceptional quality, as great size or power; as, a grizzly stuck his nose in my tent and I grabbed my pistol and shot the mother. [ Slang ] [ PJC ]

n. (Electronics) The board containing the main circuits of an electronic device, especially computers. The term is used primarily in microcomputer literature, where it designates the board containing the main expansion bus, and usually also the cpu. On motherboards designed with an expansion bus, often all of the circuits not contained on an expansion card are on the motherboard. [ PJC ]

a. Thick, like mother; viscid. [ 1913 Webster ]

They oint their naked limbs with mothered oil. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A person who is deemed to be worthless or despicable; -- obscene and highly offensive. [ vulgar slang ]
Syn. -- rotter, rat, skunk, stinker, bum, crumb, lowlife, scum bag, cocksucker, mother. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. Any object viewed as annoying or frustrating; -- usually used as an expression of anger. [ vulgar slang ] [ PJC ]

n. The supposed author of a book of nursery rhymes first published as “Mother Goose's Melodies, ” and usually called simply “Mother Goose.” The first English edition is said to have been printed in 1719 in London. The actual persons who composed the rhymes is unknown, and earlier similar rhymes in French are a likely source for some of them. Mother Goose is also used as the title of a book of Mother Goose rhymes. [ PJC ]