Word.ws English Dictionary

mother-hen

mother-hen verb: to behave in an overprotective or extremely nurturing manner (towards).

Verb

mother-hen (third-person singular simple present mother-hens, present participle mother-henning, simple past and past participle mother-henned)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To behave in an overprotective or extremely nurturing manner (towards).
    • Concerned for Diane's well-being, he mother-henned her constantly.1997, Renon Klossner Hulet, Don't You Dare Give Up, page 201
    • He watched as Jo mother-henned her entire family, including the kids, into the closed café.2018, Patricia Rice, Rebel Girl
    Synonyms:
    hen

Synonyms of mother-hen

Forms of mother-hen

third-person singular presentmother-hens
present participlemother-henning
past participlemother-henned
pastmother-henned

Questions about mother-hen

What does mother-hen mean?
Mother-hen means to behave in an overprotective or extremely nurturing manner (towards).
What part of speech is mother-hen?
Mother-hen is a verb.
What is the past tense of mother-hen?
The past tense of mother-hen is mother-henned.

Words near mother-hen in the dictionary

  1. mother's ruin
  2. mother-bird
  3. mother-birds
  4. mother-fucker
  5. mother-fuckers
  6. mother-hen
  7. mother-henned
  8. mother-henning
  9. mother-hens
  10. mother-hive
  11. mother-hives

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mother-hen (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: “mother-hen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mother-hen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.