What does motherly mean?
Motherly means Befitting a mother; warm, caring, nurturing, protective, loving..
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/ˈmʌðəli/ · adjective
Befitting a mother; warm, caring, nurturing, protective, loving..
Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life[…]
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.
To the father it would have been the worst of his loss to see his son wiping the sweat and dust from the forehead his mother had been so motherly proud of, and hear the heavy sigh with which he would sink in the not too easy chair that was all his haven after the tossing of the day’s weary ground[-]swell.
Mrs. Rutherford looked motherly at the eager girl and caressed her curls[…]
Use motherly when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Motherly means Befitting a mother; warm, caring, nurturing, protective, loving..
Common synonyms include maternal, motherful, motherlike, maternally.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life[…]
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