mother hen

American  

noun

1. a person who attends to the welfare of others, especially one who is fussily protective.

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Etymology

Origin of mother hen

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

He hovered like an anxious mother hen and spent as much time mopping his own brow as he did his wife’s.

From Literature

For 14 years, as she advanced at The Observer, she said she avoided his desk and chaperoned interns “like a mother hen crossing a busy road.”

From New York Times

A mother hen who pecked when necessary but more often took everyone under her wing.

From Los Angeles Times

“She’s like a mother hen,” said Whitehorse, who is Navajo and was then an undergraduate at UNM.

From New York Times

He cast the “mother hen” of Second City, Sue Gillan, as his character’s mentor, and one of his teachers, Claudia Wallace, as a hostile receptionist.

From Los Angeles Times