Mother Shipton

British  

/ ˈʃɪptən /

noun

1. a day-flying noctuid moth, Callistege mi, mottled brown in colour and named from a fancied resemblance between its darker marking and a haggish profile

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Etymology

Origin of Mother Shipton

named after Mother Shipton, a legendary prophetess in 15th-century Yorkshire

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Mother Shipton

Amongst other English prophets, a belief in whose power has not been entirely effaced by the light of advancing knowledge, is Robert Nixon, the Cheshire idiot, a contemporary of Mother Shipton.

From Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions — Volume 1 by Mackay, Charles

“Carriages without horses shall go,” is the “prophecy” attributed to that mythical fifteenth century pythoness, Mother Shipton; really the ex post facto forgery of Charles Hindley, the second-hand bookseller, in 1862.

From The Brighton Road The Classic Highway to the South by Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)

"Comet of 1881, the year Mother Shipton prophecied the Earth to come to an end."

From ABC's of Science by Oliver, Charles A. (Charles Alexander)

When the body of Mother Shipton had been committed to the snow, Mr. Oakhurst took the Innocent aside, and showed him a pair of snowshoes, which he had fashioned from the old pack saddle.

From Selected Stories of Bret Harte by Harte, Bret

I'm tired of these Old Mother Shipton babblings.

From Told in the East by Mundy, Talbot