Meaning & use
to mother
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Meaning
verbtransitive
to care for and protect someone in a way that is like a mother, sometimes too much
Grammar: Takes an object: she mothers her little brother.
Patterns
- mother someone
- mother someone too much
She mothers her younger colleagues, always making sure they eat lunch.
He mothers his plants, watering them twice a day.
Stop mothering me — I can look after myself.
Word forms
| third person singular | mothers |
|---|---|
| past tense | mothered |
| past participle | mothered |
| -ing form | mothering |
Common combinations
- mother someone
- She mothers her students like they were her own children.
- mother someone too much
- His parents mother him too much, so he never learns to be independent.
- stop mothering
- Stop mothering me! I'm not a child anymore.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fuss over
- This means to give someone a lot of attention and care, often in an annoying way; it is more informal and does not always suggest a mother's role.
- pamper
- This means to treat someone very kindly and give them everything they want; it is stronger and more approving than 'mother'.
- nurture
- This is a more formal word meaning to help someone or something grow and develop; it is often used for ideas or talents, not just people.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: to mother or smother?
to mother vs smother
Smother means to cover someone or something completely, or to stop someone from breathing. It is very different from mother, which is about caring.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence:
Choose one answer.
'Mother' is a transitive verb, so it takes a direct object without a preposition. The other options wrongly add 'to' or 'with'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “to mother”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.