Mother of Parliaments
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of Mother of Parliaments
C19: first used of England in 1865 by John Bright (1811–89), British Liberal statesman
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Nor are stable and effective minority governments unknown in Commonwealth countries that can trace their parliamentary and governance systems back to "the Mother of Parliaments" in Westminster.
From BBC • Apr. 28, 2015
This reverence for heritage is amplified by that often mis-applied phrase, The Mother of Parliaments.
From BBC • Mar. 29, 2015
For 400 years, while Britain spread its empire round the world, admission to the Mother of Parliaments was confined to inhabitants of the British Isles.
From Time Magazine Archive
When a vote was taken on whether the Locker-Lampson bill should be admitted to first reading, the House exactly divided 144-10-144, creating the first tie in the Mother of Parliaments since 1910.
From Time Magazine Archive
The English Parliament, too, is called the "Mother of Parliaments," but parliament is a French word, and means really a meeting for the purpose of talking.
From Stories That Words Tell Us by O'Neill, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Speakman)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
