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That tie of consanguinity which exists between persons descended from the same mother; -- used in distinction from agnation.

A company of people transplanted from their mother country to a remote province or country, and remaining subject to the jurisdiction of the parent state; as, the British colonies in America. The first settlers of New England were the best of Englishmen, well educated, devout Christians, and zealous lovers of liberty.…

" Sir W. Temple. -- To come of. (a) To descend or spring from. "Of Priam's royal race my mother came." Dryden. (b) To result or follow from. "This comes of judging by the eye." L'Estrange. -- To come off. (a) To depart or pass off from. (b) To get free; to get away; to escape. (c) To be carried through; to pass off;…

; solace; consolation in trouble; also, that which affords consolation. In comfort of her mother's fears. Shak. Cheer thy spirit with this comfort. Shak. Speaking words of endearment where words of comfort availed not. Longfellow.

Serviceable; helpful. [Obs.] Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her. Shak.

To unite; to connect. [Obs.] the use of the navel is to continue the infant unto the mother. Sir T. browne.

Children would be freer from disease if they were not crammed so much as they are by fond mothers. Locke. Cram us with praise, and make us As fat as tame things. Shak.

nursery, where the young children of poor women are cared for during the day, while their mothers are at work.

believe on slight evidence; easly imposed upon; unsuspecting. Landor. Eve, our credulous mother. Milton.

To hum or sing in a low tone; to murmur softly. Here an old grandmother was crooning over a sick child, and rocking it to and fro. Dickens.

Any preternatural labor, in whiche the boly of the child lies across the pelvis of the mother, so that the shoulder, arm, or trunk is the part first presented at the mouth of the uterus.

An ill-natured person. [Colloq.] "Crosspatch, draw the latch." Mother Goose.

gulate or thicken; to cause to congeal; to curdle. Does it curd thy blood To say I am thy mother Shak.

and, as a child while he toddles. [Obs.] Little children when they learn to go By painful mothers daded to and fro. Drayton.

nt; -- used of beasts, especially of quadrupeds; sometimes applied in contempt to a human mother. Our sire and dam, now confined to horses, are a relic of this age (13th century) . . . .Dame is used of a hen; we now make a great difference between dame and dam. T. L. K. Oliphant. The dam runs lowing up end down, Lookin…

A mother; -- applied to human beings and quadrupeds. [Obs.] Chaucer.

always seeing apparitions and hearing deathwatches. Addison. I did not hear the dog howl, mother, or the deathwatch beat. Tennyson.

in doing a kindness; delicacy of character that unfits for earnest action. You know your mother's delicacy in this point. Cowper.

as, derelict lands. The affections which these exposed or derelict children bear to their mothers, have no grounds of nature or assiduity but civility and opinion. Jer. Taylor.

An expressed wish; a request; petition. And slowly was my mother brought To yield consent to my desire. Tennyson.