M O T 
105 
M O T 
trate, .and is become the objeft of contempt and pity. 
Sir T. Herbert's 'Travels. 
MOTH'-EATEN, adj. Eaten of moths.—He as a rot¬ 
ten thing confumeth, as a garment that is moth-eaten. 
Job xiii. 28. 
MOTH MUL'LEIN, f. in botany. See Blatteria 
and Verbascum. 
MOTH'-WORT, f. A plant. 
MO'THE le VAYh'R. See Lamothe, vol. xii. p. 112. 
MOTHE MONT RAVEL', a town of France, in the 
department of the Dordogne; eighteen miles fouth-weft 
of Mucidan. 
MOTHE Sr. HERA'YE, a town of France, in the 
department of the Two Sevres: four miles fouth-eaft of 
St. Maixent. and thirteen well of Niort. 
MOTH'EN, adj. Full of moths.—We rake not up 
olde, mouldie, and mothen, parchmentes, to feeke our pro- 
genitours’ names. Ftdhe againjl Alien, 1580. 
MOTH'ER, J\ [meboji, Sax. moder, Ice!. Su. Goth, 
and Dan. moedcr, Dut. mader, Per. mater, Lat. 
{j.ctrvip, Gr.] A woman that has borne a child, correlative 
to fon or daughter.—Thus Eve is called our common 
mother; Cybele, among the ancients, was the Mother of 
the Gods. Chambers. 
I had not fo much of the man in me, 
But all my mother came into mine eyes, 
And gave me up to tears. Skaltefpcare's Hen. V. 
That which has produced any thing.—Alas, poor coun¬ 
try ? It cannot be called our mother, but our grave. 
Shalwfpcare. —That which has preceded in time; as a 
»ijof/icr-church to chapels.—That which requires reve¬ 
rence and obedience.—The good of m»</ie»*-church, as well 
as that ot civil fociety, renders a judicial practice necel- 
1 ary • Ayliffe's Par ergon. —Hyfterical pa (lion ; fo called, as 
being imagined peculiar to women ; or rather as proceed¬ 
ing from an affedlion of the uterus, mother being an old 
word for the uterus, or womb.—Melancthon will have it 
[melancholy] as common to men, as the mother to women, 
upon iome grievous trouble, paffion, diflike, or difeon- 
tent. Burton's Anat. of Mel. p. 177. — This Hopping of 
the ftomach might be the mother; forafmuch as many 
were troubled with mother fits, although few returned to 
have died of them. Graunt's Bills of Mortality. — A familiar 
term of addrels to an old woman; or to a women dedi¬ 
cated to religious aufterities: 
I will about it ftra'ight; 
No longer flaying, but to give the mother 
Notice of my affair. Shakefpeare's Meaf. for Meaf. 
[Mocdcr, Dut. from modeler, mud.] A thick fubftance 
concreting it liquors ; the lees or feum concreted.—If the 
body be liquid, and not apt to putrefy totally, it will call 
up a mother, as the mothers of diftilled waters. Bacon. 
Potted fowl, and fifli come in fo fall, 
That ere the firft is out the fecond ftinks, 
And mouldy mother gathers on the brinks. Dry den. 
[More properly modder; modde, Teut.] A young girl. 
See Mauther and Modder, vol. xv. 
A fling for a mother, a bow for a boyp 
A whip for a carter. Tuffer's Hujbandry. 
Queen Mother, fignifies the fame with what we other- 
wile call queen dowager. We meet with empreffes on 
medals and inferiptions, with the title of Mother of the 
Camp, Mother of the Senate, Mother of the Country; 
Mater Caftrorum, Mater Senatus, Mater Patrice, See. 
. MOTH'ER, adj. Had at the birth; native.—Boccace 
lived in the fame age with Chaucer, had the fame genius, 
and followed the fame ftudies: both writ novels, and each 
of them cultivated his mother tongue. Dryden. 
At length divine Cecilia came, 
Inventrels of the vocal frame, 
Vol. XVI. No. 1096. 
Enlarg’d the former narrow bounds, 
And added length to folemn founds, 
With nature’s mother wit, and arts unknown before. Dryd. 
To MOTH'ER, v. n. To gather concretion — They oint 
their naked limbs with mother'd oil. Dryden. 
To MOTH'ER, v. a. To adopt as a fon or daughter.— 
The queen, to have, put lady Elizabeth befide the crown, 
would have mothered another body’s child. Howell's Hiji. 
of Eng. 
MOTHER BAN'K, a bank in the channel, between 
the Hie of Wight and the coaff of Hamplhire, with from 
three to eight fathom water. Lat. 50. 4.1. N. Ion. 1. W. 
MOTHER CAREY’s CKIC'KENS, a name given by 
the Engiifh failors to birds which they fuppofe to be the 
forerunners of a ftonn. See Procellaria gigantea. 
MOTHER and DAU'GHTERS, three remarkable 
bills, on the coaff of New Britain, in the Pacific Ocean, 
fituated to the w'eft of Cape Pallifer. 
MOTHER and DAU'GHTERS, fmall illands near the 
coaff of Surinam. Lat. 5. N. Ion. 52. W. 
MOTHER of GOD', an attribute commonly given 
to the bleffed Virgin. It had its origin from the Greeks, 
who firft called her OeoToy.og ; in imitation of whom fome 
Latins began to call her Deipara, Dei genitrix. The 
council of Ephefus firft gave a fanclion to the appellation; 
but the fifth of Conftantinople decreed, that the Virgin 
lliould always be thus called. This gave rile to terrible 
dilputes: Anaftafius, a prelbyter of Neftorius, patriarch 
of Conftantinople, firft afferted, in a fermon, that the 
Virgin was by no means to be called ©eotoxo; ; upon 
which words, a great tumult arifing, Neftorius took his 
prelbyter’s part, and taught the fame doilrine. 
MOTH'ER KILL, a river of the Hate of Delaware, 
which runs into the Delaware Bay in lat. 39. 5. N. Ion, 
75. 30. W. 
MOTH'ER-IN-LAW, f. The mother of a hulband 
or wife.—I am come to let at variance the daughter ia 
law againft the mother in law. Matth. x. 35. 
MOTHER MA'ID, the Virgin Mary: 
Thou fhalt fee the bleffed mother-maid 
Exalted more for being good 
Than for her interell of motherhood. Donne. 
MOTHER of PEAR'L, a kind of coarfe pearl; the 
Ihell in which pearls are generated.—They were of onyx, 
fometimes of mother of pearl. HakewilL 
His mortal blade 
In ivory Iheath, ycarv’d with curious flights, 
Whofe hilt was burniffi’d gold, and handle ftrong 
Of mother-pearl. Spenjer's Fairy Queen. 
MOTHER of THY'ME, f. [See Thymus.] A plant. 
It hath trailing branches, which are not fo woody and 
hard as tliofe of thyme, but in every refpedl is the fame. 
Miller. 
MOTHER - TON'GUE, an original language, from 
which others are formed. Of mother-tongues, Scaiiger 
reckons ten in Europe; viz. the Greek, Latin, Teutonic 
or German, Sclavonic, Epirotic, Scythian or European 
Tartar, Hungarian, Cantabrian, Irifli, and Britilh. See 
the article Language, vol. xii. 
MOTHER-WATER, in chemiftry, a name given to 
the folution of cryftalline fait, after no more cryltals will 
form in it without more of the water being evaporated. 
It will be eafy to conceive, that, when the cryftalliza- 
tion of a fait has gone on till the attraftion of the 
water for the fait is equal to the attradlion by which 
the cryftals are formed, the procefs muft flop. The 
affinity of cryftallization may be increafed, and more 
cryftals may be formed, either by evaporating an addi¬ 
tional quantity of w'ater, or by expofing the mother- 
water to a lower temperature. 
MOTH'ER-WORT, f. In botany. See Cardiaca 
and Leonurus. 
MOTH'ERBY, (Dr. George), an eminent Engiifh phy- 
E e lician. 
