motherless
Britishadjective
adverb
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.
The two motherless African-American children at the heart of “Kin,” Vernice Irene Davis and Annie Kay Henderson, who grow up as “cradle friends” in Honeysuckle, La., are easy to feel for.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026
Delila Combs, 18, pleaded: "We can't watch our baby sister grow up fatherless the same way we grew up motherless... Please, please give our family the chance to heal."
From BBC • Oct. 3, 2025
The motherless cubs aren’t yet self-sufficient and thus are at high risk, triggering the search for them in the parklands, he added.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 1, 2023
“It’s felt like a neat and necessary excision,” she explains, “leaving out Jean and the confusing appetites of those old tales. I’m fumbling enough already, ambling motherless into motherhood.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 14, 2023
“All they’re doing is getting your pressure up. That’s right. They’ll leave me motherless when your pressure flies sky high.”
From "Gone Crazy in Alabama" by Rita Williams-Garcia
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.
