Word.ws English Dictionary

mothering up

mothering up is the present participle and gerund of mother up.

Meaning of mother up

Verb

mother up (third-person singular simple present mothers up, present participle mothering up, simple past and past participle mothered up)

  1. To unite and remain with one's mother.
    • We have to open the pen so the calves can mother up.
  2. (informal) To act as a mother to a child.

Questions about mothering up

What is mothering up the present participle and gerund of?
Mothering up is the present participle and gerund of mother up.

Words near mothering up in the dictionary

  1. motherin'
  2. motheriness
  3. mothering
  4. Mothering Day
  5. Mothering Sunday
  6. mothering up
  7. mothering-cake
  8. mothering-cakes
  9. motheringly
  10. motherings
  11. motherish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mothering up (page history and authors); mother up (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: “mothering up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mothering_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.