mother hen

English

A mother hen with chicks.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

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Noun

mother hen (plural mother hens)

1. (literally) A female chicken who bears eggs or chicks.
2. (idiomatic) An outspoken and overprotective woman or person dealing with others' affairs.

Translations

female chicken

• Hungarian: tyúkanyó (hu), kotlós (hu)
• Romanian: cloșcă (ro)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: gallina (es) f

overprotective woman

• Dutch: moederkloek f
• French: mère poule (fr) f
• Italian: mamma chioccia f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: клу́ша (ru) f (klúša)
• Swedish: hönsmamma c

Verb

1. Alternative form of mother-hen
   • 1990, Diane Ehrensaft, Parenting Together: Men and Women Sharing the Care of Their Children:

     Instead, the very "mother henning" implicit in their choice of "nurturance" over "intimacy" was what the they thought uniquely characterized their relationship to their child.

   • 2010, T.M. Nielsen, Equites, page 541:

     He's mother henning and driving me crazy.

   • 2011, Suzanne Forster, Unfinished Business:

     That was probably why the girls mother henned her a bit and sometimes made her feel like the runt of the litter.

See also

• hen