Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - mother

~1 n 1 »PARENT« a female parent of a child or animal  (His mother and father are both doctors. | Can I borrow your car please, Mother? | mother hen/cat/dog etc (=an animal that is a mother)) 2 be (like) a mother to to care for someone as if you were their mother 3 mother's boy BrE, mama's boy AmE a man or boy who allows his mother to protect him too much and is considered weak 4 mother hen someone who tries to protect her children too much and worries about them all the time 5 learn/be taught sth at your mother's knee to learn something as a very young child  (She had learned to flirt at her mother's knee.) 6 »BIG« spoken especially AmE something very large and usually very good  (a real mother of a car) 7 »SLANG« AmE taboo spoken motherfucker 8 every mother's son old-fashioned an expression meaning every man, used for emphasis  (I'd jail every mother's son of them.) 9 Mother a) used to address the woman who is head of a convent b) old use used by a man to address an old woman 10 the mother of a) the origin or cause of something  (Westminster is known as `the mother of parliaments'.) b) informal a very bad or severe type of something  (I woke up with the mother of all hangovers.) ~2 v to look after and protect someone as if you were their mother, especially by being too kind and doing everything for them  (Tom was constantly mothered by his wife, and resented it.)