motherless


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moth·er·less

 (mŭth′ər-ləs′)
adj.
1. Having no living mother.
2. Having no known mother.

moth′er·less·ness n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

motherless

(ˈmʌðələs)
adj
not having a mother
adv
informal Austral (intensifier): motherless broke.
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.motherless - having no living or known mother
parentless, unparented - having no parent or parents or not cared for by parent surrogates
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
بِدون أم، يَتيم
bez matky
moderløs
anyátlan
móîurlaus
bez matky
annesiz

motherless

[ˈmʌðəlɪs] ADJhuérfano de madre, sin madre
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

mother

(ˈmaðə) noun
1. a female parent, especially human. John's mother lives in Manchester; (also adjective) The mother bird feeds her young.
2. (often with capital. also Mother Superior) the female leader of a group of nuns.
verb
to care for as a mother does; to protect (sometimes too much). His wife tries to mother him.
ˈmotherhood noun
the state of being a mother.
ˈmotherless adjective
having no mother. The children were left motherless by the accident.
ˈmotherly adjective
like a mother; of, or suitable to, a mother. a motherly woman; motherly love.
ˈmotherliness noun
ˈmother-country, ˈmotherland (-land) nouns
the country where one was born.
ˈmother-in-lawplural ˈmothers-in-law noun
the mother of one's husband or wife.
ˌmother-of-ˈpearl noun, adjective
(of) the shining, hard, smooth substance on the inside of certain shells.
ˈmother-tongue noun
a person's native language. My mother-tongue is Hindi.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
References in classic literature ?
For some years the poor man lived on alone with the children, caring for them as best he could; but everything in the house seemed to go wrong without a woman to look after it, and at last he made up his mind to marry again, feeling that a wife would bring peace and order to his household and take care of his motherless children.
Now, Leandre's business called him frequently and upon long journeys from home, and his motherless daughter was coming to stay with her aunts at Cote Joyeuse.
But by this means they could not only enjoy the slow advent of their pleasure; they had also ample leisure to talk of Silas Marner's strange history, and arrive by due degrees at the conclusion that he had brought a blessing on himself by acting like a father to a lone motherless child.
I'm glad to see him, poor motherless thing!" And the loving attentions Aunt Polly lavished upon him were the one thing capable of making him more uncomfortable than he was before.
Carey thought Philip very young for this, and her heart went out to the motherless child; but her attempts to gain his affection were awkward, and the boy, feeling shy, received her demonstrations with so much sullenness that she was mortified.
"You've got it, Jessie; and, with you to help me, I hope to make the child feel that she is not quite fatherless and motherless."
"Now, now, Cornelia," remonstrated Captain Jim, who had been reading a sea novel in a corner of the living room, "you shouldn't say that about those two poor, motherless Gilman boys, unless you've got certain proof.
"Marse Tom, I just grabbed her up to my breast and says, 'Oh, you po' dear little motherless thing, you ain't got a fault in the world, and you can do anything you want to, and tear the house down, and yo' old black mammy won't say a word!'"
He has done generous by these yer poor little lambs that he loved and sheltered, and that's left fatherless and motherless. Yes, and we that knowed him knows that he would a done MORE generous by 'em if he hadn't ben afeard o' woundin' his dear William and me.
It was not the first motherless lamb he had found and he knew what to do with it.
She was the motherless child of a sort of cousin of my father's.
One of the signs he used to make me was to link one hand in the other, to show me he wished to marry me; and though I should have been glad if that could be, being alone and motherless I knew not whom to open my mind to, and so I left it as it was, showing him no favour, except when my father, and his too, were from home, to raise the curtain or the lattice a little and let him see me plainly, at which he would show such delight that he seemed as if he were going mad.