Word.ws English Dictionary

mither

/ˈmaɪðə(ɹ)/

mither verb: to make an unnecessary fuss, moan, bother.

Verb

mither (third-person singular simple present mithers, present participle mithering, simple past and past participle mithered)

  1. (Northern England, intransitive, especially Manchester) To make an unnecessary fuss, moan, bother.
    • The European Commission is pondering how to compel phone companies to come up with a universal plug for their chargers. Apple, which uses its own design for its charger cables, is mithering about the change.6 February 2020, “The parable of the plug”, in The Economist
  2. (Northern England, transitive, especially Manchester) To pester or irritate someone.
    • "Every night after work I'd mither [pester] my dad to take me out into the field and practise. There were definitely times when he didn't want to do it, but he never said no.11 June 2019, “Women's World Cup: England v Argentina – Keira Walsh 'inspired' by opponents”, in BBC Sport

Noun

IPA/ˈmɪðə(ɹ)/

mither (plural mithers)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland) mother

Forms of mither

Verb
third-person singular presentmithers
present participlemithering
past participlemithered
pastmithered
Noun
pluralmithers

Origin of mither

Late 17th century, of unknown origin; * Possibly related to Middle English bemothered (“confused, perplexed”), itself probably related to Old English mēþe (“exhausting, troublesome”), Old Norse móðr (“angry, frustrated”), Middle Dutch moeden (“to tire, exhaust, disturb, trouble”). * Possibly allied to Welsh moedro (“to worry or bother”), though according to the GPC, the latter is borrowed from English. * Alternatively, possibly tied to Welsh meidda (“to beg for whey”), from maidd (“whey”). * Perhaps from Welsh meiddio (“to dare or venture”), a variant of beiddio (“to dare”). The "dd" in Welsh corresponds in sound to the "th" in mither, and English also has moider and moither.

Variant from Middle English muther, muthir, from Old English mōdor (“mother”). More at mother.

Words that rhyme with mither

Questions about mither

What does mither mean?
Mither means to make an unnecessary fuss, moan, bother.
What part of speech is mither?
Mither can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce mither?
Mither is pronounced /ˈmaɪðə(ɹ)/.
What is the past tense of mither?
The past tense of mither is mithered.

Words near mither in the dictionary

  1. Mitfordesque
  2. Mitfordian
  3. mitgehen
  4. mithai
  5. mithan
  6. mither
  7. mithered
  8. mithering
  9. mithers
  10. Mithila
  11. mithkal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mither (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mither.wav.

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