Word.ws English Dictionary

be mum

be mum is the alternative form of be mother.

Meaning of be mother

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?

Forms of be mum

third-person singular presentis mum
present participlebeing mum
pastwas mum
past participlebeen mum

Questions about be mum

What is be mum the alternative form of?
Be mum is the alternative form of be mother.

Words near be mum in the dictionary

  1. be left holding the baby
  2. be left kicking
  3. be like
  4. be lost to the four winds
  5. be mother
  6. be mum
  7. be my guest
  8. be no exception
  9. be no match for
  10. be no stranger to
  11. be not to know

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: be mum (page history and authors); be mother (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.

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