Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Mother \Moth"er\, n. [OE. moder, AS. m[=o]dor; akin to D.
   moeder, OS. m[=o]dar, G. mutter, OHG. muotar, Icel.
   m[=o][eth]ir, Dan. & Sw. moder, OSlav. mati, Russ. mate, Ir.
   & Gael. mathair, L. mater, Gr. mh`thr, Skr. m[=a]t[.r]; cf.
   Skr. m[=a] to measure. [root]268. Cf. {Material}, {Matrix},
   {Metropolis}, {Father}.]
   1. A female parent; especially, one of the human race; a
      woman who has borne a child.

   2. That which has produced or nurtured anything; source of
      birth or origin; generatrix.

            Alas! poor country! . . . it can not Be called our
            mother, but our grave.                --Shak.

            I behold . . . the solitary majesty of Crete, mother
            of a religion, it is said, that lived two thousand
            years.                                --Landor.

   3. An old woman or matron. [Familiar]

   4. The female superior or head of a religious house, as an
      abbess, etc.

   5. Hysterical passion; hysteria. [Obs.] --Shak.

   {Mother Carey's chicken} (Zo["o]l.), any one of several
      species of small petrels, as the stormy petrel
      ({Procellaria pelagica}), and Leach's petrel ({Oceanodroma
      leucorhoa}), both of the Atlantic, and {O. furcata} of the
      North Pacific.

   {Mother Carey's goose} (Zo["o]l.), the giant fulmar of the
      Pacific. See {Fulmar}.

   {Mother's mark} (Med.), a congenital mark upon the body; a
      n[ae]vus.

Petrel \Pe"trel\, n. [F. p['e]trel; a dim. of the name Peter, L.
   Petrus, Gr. ? a stone (--John i. 42); -- probably so called
   in allusion to St. Peter's walking on the sea. See
   {Petrify}.] (Zo["o]l.)
   Any one of numerous species of longwinged sea birds belonging
   to the family {Procellarid[ae]}. The small petrels, or Mother
   Carey's chickens, belong to {{Oceanites}}, {{Oceanodroma}},
   {{Procellaria}}, and several allied genera.

   {Diving petrel}, any bird of the genus {Pelecanoides}. They
      chiefly inhabit the southern hemisphere.

   {Fulmar petrel}, {Giant petrel}. See {Fulmar}.

   {Pintado petrel}, the Cape pigeon. See under {Cape}.

   {Pintado petrel}, any one of several small petrels,
      especially {Procellaria pelagica}, or Mother Carey's
      chicken, common on both sides of the Atlantic.