mother hen

1. 1.

   a person who cares for the needs of others (especially in an overprotective or interfering way)

   Broaderperson
2. 2.

   a hen with chicks

   Broaderhen

Questions about mother hen

What does mother hen mean?

mother hen means "a person who cares for the needs of others (especially in an overprotective or interfering way)". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is mother hen a common word?

mother hen is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.