Motherling

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A mother, especially a precious one. diminutive, endearing

    "I will marry again, motherling! I will indeed; but this time let me choose for myself," he said consolingly as the fond woman clung to him in mingled joy at seeing him again, and grief at the failure of her schemes."

  2. 2
    A woman's child.

    "First, to resolve gender ambiguity in links to collateral relatives, he introduced the symbols F (“fatherling”) and M (“motherling”) to refer to a “man's child” and a “woman's child,” respectively."

  3. 3
    Mother. derogatory

    "Dr. Howard shook his head doubtingly. "Motherling. please, motherling," coaxed Bab."

Synonyms

All synonyms
margemotherold lady

Example

More examples

"I will marry again, motherling! I will indeed; but this time let me choose for myself," he said consolingly as the fond woman clung to him in mingled joy at seeing him again, and grief at the failure of her schemes."

Etymology

From mother + -ling.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.