mother hen
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Pronunciation
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
mother hen (plural mother hens)
- (literally) A female chicken who bears eggs or chicks.
- (idiomatic) An outspoken and overprotective woman or person dealing with others' affairs; especially, an assertive matriarch.
Hyponyms
- helicopter mom
- helicopter parent (female)
Related terms
- mother-hen (verb)
- henpecked
Translations
female chicken
overprotective woman
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Verb
mother hen (third-person singular simple present mother hens, present participle mother henning, simple past and past participle mother henned)
- Alternative form of mother-hen
- 1990, Diane Ehrensaft, Parenting Together: Men and Women Sharing the Care of Their Children:
- Instead, the very "mother henning" implicit in their choice of "nurturance" over "intimacy" was what the they thought uniquely characterized their relationship to their child.
- 2010, T.M. Nielsen, Equites, page 541:
- He's mother henning and driving me crazy.
- 2011, Suzanne Forster, Unfinished Business:
- That was probably why the girls mother henned her a bit and sometimes made her feel like the runt of the litter.
See also
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