only a mother could love

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English

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Etymology

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From the instinctual love that a mother has for her offspring.

Phrase

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only a mother could love

  1. Used to describe someone or something very unlovable or repulsive.
    • 1995, Nancy Pickard, Confession, page 5:
      There was an interesting face beneath the spots, I thought as I looked at him, but at the moment at which fate rang our doorbell it was still a face only a mother could love, which was a problem for the boy on our doorstep.
    • 2009, Tyler R. Tichelaar, The Only Thing That Lasts, page 164:
      Mark was someone only a mother could love—but I did feel sorry for his mother.
    • 2013, Lori Duron ·, Raising My Rainbow:
      Sometimes, when he does something that only a mother could love, I get scared.
    • 2016, Amy Newmark, Chicken Soup for the Soul:
      It was a wreath only a mother could love.
    • 2019, Ian Brennan, Silenced by Sound: The Music Meritocracy Myth:
      It was a song that only a mother could love.
    • 2021, Michio Kaku, The God Equation:
      The resulting animal, it was said, was one only a mother could love.