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Maternal   /mətˈərnəl/   Listen
Maternal

adjective
1.
Characteristic of a mother.  Antonym: paternal.
2.
Relating to or derived from one's mother.
3.
Relating to or characteristic of or befitting a parent.  Synonyms: parental, paternal.  Antonym: filial.
4.
Related on the mother's side.  Synonyms: enate, enatic.



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"Maternal" Quotes from Famous Books



... stooping and then raising herself to the utmost height at the moment when she apostrophizes the sun. In the scene of Medea with her children, a heart-rending and terrible scene, there was nothing but dryness and a total absence of every maternal feeling. ...
— Paris As It Was and As It Is • Francis W. Blagdon

... themselves fully and unreservedly to a spiritual life in order to become spiritual parents to many, to them offspring would be a hindrance in their work. But where the domestic faculties are the strongest, the home is lonesome without children. In some the maternal instinct is exceedingly strong, for it manifests itself to such an extent as to become the ruling passion; nothing else but offspring can satisfy them. And this maternal passion is expressed in matchless language by Mr. Stephen ...
— A California Girl • Edward Eldridge

... belonged; she neither sought nor shunned a change of state, but regarded marriage as an accident that, in befalling her, might substantially change the outlook. It would render a life of teaching, no doubt, impossible; domestic or maternal cares might to some extent trammel even literary activity (for, married or not married, she was determined to fulfil her mission of writing), but in no case was she inclined to regard marriage as an escape from difficulties, as the solution ...
— The Nebuly Coat • John Meade Falkner

... hope, there should be happiness, for them, for all. Kind Nature, ever mild, extends her fond arms to her truant children, and breathes her words of solace. As we weep on her indulgent and maternal breast, the exhausted passions, one by one, expire like gladiators in yon huge pile that has made barbarity sublime. Yes! there is hope and joy; ...
— The Young Duke • Benjamin Disraeli

... prayers, if by accident she discovered that any one had retired without complying with the duty. Solicitous for their temporal, as for their eternal welfare, she interceded for them with her brother-in-law when they had incurred his displeasure, and attended them in sickness with truly maternal devotedness. Although her close attention to the presence of God never interfered with the fulfilment of her duties, it incapacitated her from following up the thread of any conversation unconnected with ...
— The Life of the Venerable Mother Mary of the Incarnation • "A Religious of the Ursuline Community"


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