motherly
adverb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L333694 on Wikidata ↗adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L338538 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈmʌðəli/ / /ˈmʌðɚli/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English moderly, from Old English mōdorlīċ (“motherly, maternal”), from Proto-Germanic *mōdērlīkaz (“motherly, maternal”), equivalent to mother + -ly.
- Befitting a mother; warm, caring, nurturing, protective, loving.
“Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life[…]”
adv
Etymology: From Middle English moderly, from Old English mōdorlīċ (“motherly, maternal”), from Proto-Germanic *mōdērlīkaz (“motherly, maternal”), equivalent to mother + -ly.
- In a way pertaining to, befitting, or of a mother.
“The mother sometime beateth the child, but yet her hart melteth vpon it euen in the very beating, and therefore she casteth the rodde into the fier, and colleth the childe, geueth it an apple and dandleth it moste motherly.”
“I Am glad that you approve and applaud my design, of withdrawing my self from all tumult and business of the World; and consecrating the little rest of my time to those studies, to which Nature had so Motherly inclined me, and from which Fortune like a Step-mother has so long detained me.”