[See QUEEN 2 c.]
1. A queen dowager who is the mother of the reigning sovereign.
1577. Frampton, Joyfull Newes, II. lxxvi. 43 b. He … did sende it to kyng Fraunces the seconde, and to the Queene Mother.
1664–5. Pepys, Diary (1879), III. 106. Mr. Povy carried me to Somerset House and showed me the Queene-Mother’s Chamber.
1768. H. Walpole, Hist. Doubts, 98. Why was not the queen-mother … applied to … for his support and education?
1853. Maurice, Proph. & Kings, xi. 177. A usurpation by the queen-mother for six years follows.
2. A queen who is a mother. Also applied to a queen-bee, and fig.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. i. 190. Let his Queene Mother all alone intreat him To shew his Greefes.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Myrtle-Grove, 9. Clarinda rose … Like the Queen-mother of the Stars above.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1818), II. xviii. 118. The first fruits of the queen-mother’s vernal parturition assist her.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 24 May, 5/1. For more than sixty years the Queen-mother has gone in and out among generations of Windsor people.
3. a. A variety of plum. b. A variety of pear.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 233/2. Plums…. Saint Julian, Queen Mother.
1767. J. Abercrombie, Ev. Man his own Gardener (1803), 673. Pears,… Queen mother, Myrobalan [etc.].
1770. Foote, Lame Lover, III. Wks. 1799, II. 86. A damascen plum … does pretty well indeed in a tart, but … to compare it with the queen mother, the padrigons [etc.].
4. attrib., as † queen-mother herb, ‘queen’s herb,’ tobacco (Minsheu, Ductor, 1617). Obs.
So called after Catherine de Medici, to whom it was sent by Nicot, then ambassador in Portugal (1559–61).
