maternals

Noun

maternal (plural maternals)

1. (dated, informal, rare) A mother.
   • In the necessarily brief space allotted to a review in these pages it would be impossible to sketch out the story at any length. Suffice it that there are two fathers, two sons and two daughters; the maternals, for once, go for little, but there is an Aunt Philly—a conception, that starts out in...1865 January, “‘Which is the Winner?’ By Charles Clarke, Author of ‘Charlie Thornhill’ [book review]”, in Baily’s Monthly Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume IX, number 59, London: A. H. Baily &...
2. (rare) A person related through the mother, or her side of the family; a maternal relative.
   • Divide what? The estate that came from the father to the son. Amongst whom? The paternal brothers. If it means, that paternals and maternals shall now divide, as paternals formerly did, the whole sentence operates nothing; for without, the half blood on both sides, would have taken. But say it...1826 January, John Haywood, Judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court, “Jane C. Butler v. James M. King”, in George S. Yerger, William Frierson Cooper, editors, Tennessee Reports. Reports of Cases Argued...

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