Word.ws English Dictionary

only a mother could love

only a mother could love phrase: used to describe someone or something very unlovable or repulsive.

Phrase

only a mother could love

  1. Used to describe someone or something very unlovable or repulsive.
    • There was an interesting face beneath the spots, I thought as I looked at him, but at the moment at which fate rang our doorbell it was still a face only a mother could love, which was a problem for the boy on our doorstep.1995, Nancy Pickard, Confession, page 5
    • Mark was someone only a mother could love—but I did feel sorry for his mother.2009, Tyler R. Tichelaar, The Only Thing That Lasts, page 164

Examples of only a mother could love in a sentence

  • Sometimes, when he does something that only a mother could love, I get scared.2013, Lori Duron ·, Raising My Rainbow:
  • It was a wreath only a mother could love.2016, Amy Newmark, Chicken Soup for the Soul:
  • It was a song that only a mother could love.2019, Ian Brennan, Silenced by Sound: The Music Meritocracy Myth:
  • The resulting animal, it was said, was one only a mother could love.2021, Michio Kaku, The God Equation:

Origin of only a mother could love

From the instinctual love that a mother has for her offspring.

Questions about only a mother could love

What does only a mother could love mean?
Only a mother could love means used to describe someone or something very unlovable or repulsive.
How do you use only a mother could love in a sentence?
Sometimes, when he does something that only a mother could love, I get scared.
What part of speech is only a mother could love?
Only a mother could love is a phrase.

Words near only a mother could love in the dictionary

  1. onlookers
  2. onlooking
  3. onlooks
  4. onlucky
  5. only
  6. only a mother could love
  7. only child
  8. only children
  9. only daughter
  10. only daughters
  11. only dead fish go with the flow

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: only a mother could love (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: “only a mother could love.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/only_a_mother_could_love. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.