Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - mother

(mothers, mothering, mothered) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. Your mother is the woman who gave birth to you. You can also call someone your mother if she brings you up as if she was this woman. She sat on the edge of her mother’s bed... She’s an English teacher and a mother of two children... I’m here, Mother. N-FAMILY 2. If a woman mothers a child, she looks after it and brings it up, usually because she is its mother. Colleen had dreamed of mothering a large family. VERB: V n • mothering The reality of mothering is frequently very different from the romantic ideal. N-UNCOUNT 3. If you mother someone, you treat them with great care and affection, as if they were a small child. Stop mothering me. VERB: V n