mothers

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of mother.

   Several mothers organized the fundraiser for the local clinic.

   The support group brings together new mothers from across the city.

   Note

   The plural is regular, a plain -s added to mother, and it carries every sense of the noun. That includes birth, adoptive and foster mothers, egg donors, and the figurative mothers that are ancestors or sources. The same spelling is also the verb form of mother, so "she mothers them" uses identical letters with no plural meaning; the subject in front of it tells you which you have.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of mother.

   Their oldest sister mothers the whole family whenever their parents travel.

   The senior nurse quietly mothers each recovering patient on the ward.

   Note

   The nurturing verb takes a direct object: she mothers the new recruits. A narrower use belongs to vinegar-making, where mother is the substance that develops in fermenting alcohol and turns it into vinegar. In that sense the verb can also stand without an object, so a cask of wine that mothers is one developing that substance, and nobody is being cared for.

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