See Also: Maternal(medicine)
maternal(dictionary)
maternal(dictionary)
MATERNAL(law)
maternal age 35 and over(medicine)
maternal behaviour(medicine)
maternal mRNA(medicine)
maternal mortality(medicine)
maternal antibody(medicine)
maternal welfare(medicine)

maternal (iou)



maternal adjective. L15.
[Old & mod. French maternel or from Latin maternus, from mater MOTHER noun1: see -AL1.]
Of or pertaining to a mother or mothers; motherly. L15.
J. Rosenberg Mothers..tired from their exhausting maternal duties.
b. Having the instincts of motherhood. L18.
G. F. Atherton She is not maternal..I never saw a baby held so awkwardly.
c. spec. Of or pertaining to the mother in pregnancy and childbirth; uterine (as opp. foetal). E19.
A. S. Neill Who can say what effect..maternal rigidity has on the newborn baby?
That is a mother. Now rare. E16.
Belonging to a mother. E17.
Dickens Interposed Lavvy, over the maternal shoulder.
Inherited from or related through a mother or the mother's side. M17.
H. Bailey Vera's maternal grandfather..was Welsh.
Special collocations: maternal language, maternal tongue (now rare) a mother tongue, one's native language.
maternalism noun maternal instincts; the characteristics or state of motherhood: M20.
materna'listic adjective motherly, maternal M20.
maternally adverb M17.