MOTHERLY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does motherly mean? 

• MOTHERLY (adjective)
  The adjective MOTHERLY has 1 sense:

1. befitting a mother; warm and nurturing

  Familiarity information: MOTHERLY used as an adjective is very rare.

• MOTHERLY (adverb)
  The adverb MOTHERLY has 1 sense:

1. in a maternal manner; as a mother

  Familiarity information: MOTHERLY used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MOTHERLY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Befitting a mother; warm and nurturing

Similar:

maternal (characteristic of a mother)

Derivation:

mother (a woman who has given birth to a child (also used as a term of address to your mother))

motherliness (the quality of having or showing the tenderness and warmth and affection of or befitting a mother)

• MOTHERLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In a maternal manner; as a mother

Synonyms:

maternally; motherly

Context example:

she loved her students almost maternally

 Context examples 

For motherly eyes are quick to see any change in children's faces.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

You will be under the care of a motherly good sort of woman, of whose kindness to you I can have no doubt.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

And she appears so truly good—there is something so motherly and kind-hearted about her, that it wins upon one directly.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The landlady looked at him in a motherly way and shook her head.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

With a motherly tenderness the gaunt woman put her arm round her mistress and led her from the room.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Fanny wrote to offer herself; and her mother's answer, though short, was so kind—a few simple lines expressed so natural and motherly a joy in the prospect of seeing her child again, as to confirm all the daughter's views of happiness in being with her—convincing her that she should now find a warm and affectionate friend in the mama who had certainly shewn no remarkable fondness for her formerly; but this she could easily suppose to have been her own fault or her own fancy.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Mrs. Markleham, by this time recovering the power of speech, and seeming to swell with family pride and motherly indignation, here exclaimed, Annie, get up immediately, and don't disgrace everybody belonging to you by humbling yourself like that, unless you wish to see me go out of my mind on the spot!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She doesn't bounce, but moves quietly, and takes care of a certain little person in a motherly way which delights me.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She was a plain, motherly kind of woman, who had worked hard in her youth, and now thought herself entitled to the occasional holiday of a tea-visit; and having formerly owed much to Mr. Woodhouse's kindness, felt his particular claim on her to leave her neat parlour, hung round with fancy-work, whenever she could, and win or lose a few sixpences by his fireside.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I think so, because she beckoned to me to climb up, with quite a new and motherly expression in her face, and put her arm round my neck, and gave me just such a kiss as she might have given to her own boy.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)