motherless

motherless adjective: without a (living) mother.

Adjective

motherless (not comparable)

Without a (living) mother.
- Of 110 boys, all very far below the average in physique, forty-four had a mother at home, but sixty-six were all practically motherless. In some cases the mother was dead, but in the rest the mother was absent all day at work.1907, Margaret McMillan, Labour and Childhood, page 14
Without mother (mucilaginous substance in fermenting liquid).
- Your onely way to make a good pomander, is this. Take an ownce of the pureſt garden mould, clenſed and ſteeped ſeauen daies in change of motherleſſe roſe water, then take the beſt Labdanum, Benioine, both Storaxes, amber greece, and Ciuet, and muſke, incorporate them together, and work them into...1607, [attributed to Thomas Tomkis], Lingva: Or The Combat of the Tongue, and the Five Senses for Superiority. A Pleasant Comœdie., London: Printed by G[eorge] Eld, for Simon Waterson, →OCLC, act IV...
- Once the bottle is opened, the starter may develop again if the vinegar is in your cupboard for awhile.^([sic]) If its appearance bothers you, strain the vinegar through several layers of cheesecloth into a sterilized bottle. Motherless or not, vinegar has [...]1997, Good Housekeeping, volume 225, page 132
(figuratively) Without a history or predecessor.
- Although there had been some previous attempts in the same direction, Boole's idea by no means grew from what other men had conceived, but, as truly as any mental product may, sprang from the brain of genius, motherless.2009, Charles S. Peirce, Writings of Charles S. Peirce, →ISBN
- So in an inclusive act of recognition, here's our goopy take on this motherless dish—a mash-up of all your food-court chickens, be they sweet 'n' sour, sesame[.]2015, Peter Meehan, Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes, →ISBN, page 192

Adverb

motherless (comparative more motherless, superlative most motherless)

(Australia, South Africa, slang) very, completely (especially in reference to drunkenness)
- At the wake, held at her old pub, Brenda watched as her sisters, brothers-in-law and several nieces and nephews got motherless drunk, then summoned a taxi to take them all home in two separate trips.2009, Bryce Courtenay, The Story Of Danny Dunn

motherless meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Malayalam

motherless in Telugu

without a living mother: తల్లిలేని tallilēni

motherless in Malayalam

അമ്മ മരിച്ച, അമ്മയില്ലാത്ത

More languagesFewer languages

motherless in Gujarati: નમાયું namāyũ
Kashmiri: ماجہِ رۆس māji ros, ماجہِ یَتیٖم māji yatīm

Forms of motherless

comparative	more motherless
superlative	most motherless

Origin of motherless

From Middle English moderles, from Old English mōdorlēas, from Proto-Germanic *mōdērlausaz, equivalent to mother + -less. Cognate with Saterland Frisian muurloos (“motherless”), Dutch moederloos (“motherless”), German mutterlos (“motherless”), Danish moderløs (“motherless”), Swedish moderlös (“motherless”), Icelandic móðurlaus (“motherless”).

Words formed from motherless

Phrases with motherless

sons of motherless goats

Questions about motherless

What does motherless mean?: Motherless means without a (living) mother.
What is motherless in Tamil?: Motherless in Tamil is தாய்இல்லாத, தாயில்லா, தாயற்ற. See Motherless meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is motherless?: Motherless can be an adjective or an adverb.

Words near motherless in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: motherless (page history and authors); motherless (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); motherless (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); motherless (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-motherless.ogg.

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