mater

plural maters · plural matres

1. formalhumorousMother.

   “The mater will be delighted to see you again—after all those years,” he added.

   1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 5

   4 more examples

   Their maters are all pals of my mater’s, and I don’t want to get them into trouble for aiding and abetting my little show, if you understand what I mean.

   1919 June 14, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, “A Damsel in Distress”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 191, number 50, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, chapter XX, page 57, column 1

   And then there’s the mater! Poor old mater! She goes about on tiptoe; she’s always watching me and pretending she’s not watching me; I believe she would like to have everything padded with feather beds. All the while she has been wanting me to do the goody book thing, get down on my knees and put my head in her lap and blub.

   1923, Warwick Deeping, “John Stretton”, in The Secret Sanctuary (The Scherz Phoenix Books), Berne: Alfred Scherz Publishers, published 1945, →OCLC, page 32

   Strangled by the wishes of pater / Hoping for the arms of mater / Get to me the sooner or later

   1985, Mick Hucknall, Neil Moss, “Holding Back the Years”, in Picture Book, performed by Simply Red

   “Mater, you look well.” / “I am well. And you,” she said in that dryly prosaic deep voice of hers, “look healed.”

   1997, Colleen McCullough, Caesar’s Women, page 17

2. anatomyA meninx; the dura mater, arachnoid mater, or pia mater of the brain.

plural maters

1. biologySomeone or something that mates.

plural maters

1. alternativeAlternative form of 'mater (“tomato”).

   "A mater sandwich would be better." Trixie said, "but I'll take it if that's all you got." As if we were woefully deprived of food. So Trixie had a tomato sandwich for lunch, carefully prepared by Lillian but for which she received no thanks.

   2015, Ann B. Ross, Miss Julia's Marvelous Makeover, →ISBN, page 28