Motherwise

//ˈmʌð.ɚˌwaɪz// adv

adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    In the manner of a mother; maternally. not-comparable

    "The chubby father let the baby slide into one of the heavy wooden chairs, and the little girl instantly busied herself, motherwise, smoothing out the child's rumpled frock of clean faded calico, placing his fat legs to give a better balance in the big seat, straightening the cheap wide straw hat, ludicrously too old, that was fastened with a string under his double chin."

Synonyms

All synonyms
maternally

Example

More examples

"The chubby father let the baby slide into one of the heavy wooden chairs, and the little girl instantly busied herself, motherwise, smoothing out the child's rumpled frock of clean faded calico, placing his fat legs to give a better balance in the big seat, straightening the cheap wide straw hat, ludicrously too old, that was fastened with a string under his double chin."

Etymology

mother + -wise

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