mother house

American  

noun

Roman Catholic Church.

1. a convent housing a mother superior of a community of nuns.

2. a self-governing convent having authority over other houses.

---

Etymology

Origin of mother house

First recorded in 1665–75

Example Sentences

She remains at the mother house in Saint-Aignan sur Roë, in western France.

From Fox News • Dec. 8, 2018

But the Little Sisters refused to accept them and kept Saint Michel in place in the mother house.

From Fox News • Dec. 8, 2018

“That was a life-changing experience,” said Smith, who went on to work many years in Kansas City’s poorest neighborhoods and now lives retired in a Sisters of Loretto mother house in Kentucky.

From Washington Times • Apr. 10, 2016

Then what she calls providence placed her in a Daughters of St. Paul mother house in Culver City, Calif., virtually next door to Hollywood.

From New York Times • Jan. 25, 2013

Stow, in Lincolnshire, mother house at Eynsham, 106.

From The Historic Thames by Belloc, Hilaire