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definitions

mother ship

See more synonyms for mother ship on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a vessel or craft that services others operating far from a home port or center.

Origin of mother ship

First recorded in 1885–90
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for mother ship

bellwether, forerunner, head, chief

Examples from the Web for mother ship

Historical Examples of mother ship

  • He turned his head, looking over his shoulder at the mother-ship.

  • Oh, that's the mother-ship's dynamos charging the batteries of Branch's boat.

  • The mother-ship had to steer a true course, regardless of the vagaries of its rockets.

    Space Tug

    Murray Leinster

  • The radars plotted their position with relation to each other and the mother-ship.

    Space Tug

    Murray Leinster

  • It begins to look as though we'd have to stick around until every one of those torpedoes gets somewhere near its mother-ship.

    Skylark Three

    Edward Elmer Smith

British Dictionary definitions for mother ship

mother ship

noun
  1. a ship providing facilities and supplies for a number of small vessels
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012