mother (redirected from motherless)

an earth mother

a woman who has children and who has a natural ability as a mother. My older sister's a real earth mother. She has four kids and she's completely happy to stay at home all day with them.

See also: earth

at your mother's knee

if you learned to do something at your mother's knee, you learned it when you were a young child. I learned to sew at my mother's knee.

See also: knee

be tied to your mother's apron strings

if someone, usually a man, is tied to their mother's apron strings, they still need their mother and cannot think or act independently. He's 30 but he's still tied to his mother's apron strings.

See also: string, tie

the [child/house/mother, etc.] from hell (humorous)

the worst or most unpleasant person or thing of that type that anyone can imagine. His mother's awful. She really is the mother-in-law from hell.

See also: child, from, hell, house

a mother lode of something (American)

a large collection of a particular type of thing. His collection of letters and papers is a mother lode of information for writers and journalists.

Mother Nature

the force that controls the natural world. Look at those trees blown down in the storm. Just shows you what Mother Nature can do when she gets angry.

See also: nature

the mother of all something (informal)

an extreme example of something. Mike's suffering from the mother of all hangovers after the party last night.

See also: all

a mummy's/mother's boy (British & Australian, American)

a boy or man who allows his mother to have too much influence on him. Derek's a bit of a mummy's boy. He finished with his last girlfriend because his mother disapproved. He was often depicted as a weak-willed mama's boy with a domineering mother.

See also: boy

Necessity is the mother of invention.

something that you say which means that if you want to do something very much you will think of a way to do it. We can't afford expensive paper to paint on so we use old envelopes and newspaper. They do say necessity is the mother of invention.

See also: necessity

Shall I be mother? (British & Australian, humorous)

something that you say in order to ask whether you should serve food or drink to someone. Here comes the tea. Shall I be mother?

See also: shall

---

the mother of all something

an extreme example of something. Donny's car crash was the mother of all crashes. Hundreds will travel to Stonehenge, the mother of all places to celebrate the longest day of the year.

See also: all