Word.ws English Dictionary

motherling

motherling noun: a mother, especially a precious one.

Noun

motherling (plural motherlings)

  1. (diminutive, endearing) A mother, especially a precious one.
    • I will marry again, motherling! I will indeed; but this time let me choose for myself," he said consolingly as the fond woman clung to him in mingled joy at seeing him again, and grief at the failure of her schemes.1912, Flora Annie Webster Steel, King-errant
  2. A woman's child.
    • First, to resolve gender ambiguity in links to collateral relatives, he introduced the symbols F (“fatherling”) and M (“motherling”) to refer to a “man's child” and a “woman's child,” respectively.2012, Thomas R. Trautmann, Peter M. Whiteley, Crow-Omaha
  3. (derogatory) Mother.
    • Dr. Howard shook his head doubtingly. "Motherling. please, motherling," coaxed Bab.1908, Mary Mapes Dodge, St. Nicholas - Volume 35, Part 1 - Page 231

Forms of motherling

pluralmotherlings

Origin of motherling

From mother + -ling.

Questions about motherling

What does motherling mean?
Motherling means a mother, especially a precious one.
What part of speech is motherling?
Motherling is a noun.
What is the plural of motherling?
The plural of motherling is motherlings.

Words near motherling in the dictionary

  1. motherlike
  2. motherlily
  3. motherline
  4. motherlines
  5. motherliness
  6. motherling
  7. motherlings
  8. motherload
  9. motherloads
  10. motherlode
  11. motherlodes

Source and license

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