Word.ws English Dictionary

be mother

be mother verb: to pour out tea for others.

Verb

be mother (no third-person singular simple present, present participle being mother, no simple past, past participle been mother)

  1. (UK, idiomatic, no-past) To pour out tea for others.
    • Ah, here are the cakes and tea; shall I be mother?
    • They went to a cafe and had afternoon tea.
      'Shall l be mother?' Marcus said, lifting a utilitarian brown teapot, all cosied up in something that looked like a bobble hat.2009, Kate Atkinson, When Will There Be Good News?, page 277

be mother meaning in Tamil and Bengali

be mother in Tamil

மற்றவர்களுக்குத் தேநீர் பரிமாறு

be mother in Bengali

অন্যদের জন্য চা ঢালা

Forms of be mother

present participlebeing mother
past participlebeen mother
alternative formbe mum

Origin of be mother

Pouring tea is traditionally the mother's role in a family setting.

Questions about be mother

What does be mother mean?
Be mother means to pour out tea for others.
What is be mother in Tamil?
Be mother in Tamil is மற்றவர்களுக்குத் தேநீர் பரிமாறு. See Be mother meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is be mother?
Be mother is a verb.

Words near be mother in the dictionary

  1. be left at the post
  2. be left holding the baby
  3. be left kicking
  4. be like
  5. be lost to the four winds
  6. be mother
  7. be mum
  8. be my guest
  9. be no exception
  10. be no match for
  11. be no stranger to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: be mother (page history and authors); be mother (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); be mother (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-be mother.ogg.

Cite this entry: “be mother.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/be_mother. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.