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Literal vs Mothering - What's the difference?

literal | mothering |

As nouns the difference between literal and mothering

is that literal is (programming) a value, as opposed to an identifier, written into the source code of a computer program while mothering is the nurturing of a child by its mother.

As an adjective literal

is exactly as stated; read or understood without additional interpretation; according to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical.

As a verb mothering is

.

literal

English

(wikipedia literal) (Webster 1913)

Alternative forms

* litteral (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Exactly as stated; read or understood without additional interpretation; according to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical.
    • The literal translation is “hands full of bananas” but it means empty-handed.
  • * Hooker
    • a middle course between the rigour of literal translation and the liberty of paraphrasts
  • Following the letter or exact words; not free; not taking liberties.
    • A literal reading of the law would prohibit it, but that is clearly not the intent.
  • (uncommon) Consisting of, or expressed by, letters.
    • a literal equation
  • * Johnson
    • The literal notation of numbers was known to Europeans before the ciphers.
  • (of a person) Giving a strict or literal construction; unimaginative; matter-of-fact.

    • Antonyms

    * (exactly as stated) figurative

    Related terms

    * letter * literacy * literary * literate * literature

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (programming) A value, as opposed to an identifier, written into the source code of a computer program.
  • (logic) A propositional variable or the negation of a propositional variable.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolution_%28logic%29]

    • See also

    * constant * prime formula

    External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    mothering

    English

    Verb

    (head)

    • Noun

  • The nurturing of a child by its mother.
  • * 1996 , Rachel Bowlby, Feminist Destinations and Further Essays on Virginia Woolf
    • The unification or bringing together of disparate things
  • The protective behaviour of a mother towards her child.
  • Nurturing or protective behaviour reminiscent of that performed by a literal mother.
  • * {{quote-journal , year=1912 , date=Volume 24 , author= , title=The Mother's Pension Law , journal=The Journal of the International Brotherhood of Boiler Makers citation
    • , passage=The institution in the past has done monumental work harboring the homeless, mothering' the homeless, ' mothering the motherless, caring for the poor and dependent}}
  • * {{quote-journal , year=1970 , date=July 31 , author=Leonard McCombe , title=Big business tangles with day care problems , journal=LIFE magazine citation
    • , passage="If we must choose between teaching and mothering'," says one teacher, "we take care of ' mothering first."}}
  • (obsolete) Shortened form of a-mothering (obsolete); practice of visiting one's literal or figurative mother or mother church (compare Mothering Sunday).
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1905 , author=John Brand, William Carew Hazlitt , title=Faiths and folklore: a dictionary of national beliefs, Vol 2 , chapter=National Faiths citation , isbn= , page=424 , passage=Mothering'-.—In former days, when the Roman Catholic was the established religion, it was the custom for people to visit their Mother Church on MidLent Sunday, and to make their offerings at the high altar. ...the now remaining practice of ' Mothering , or going to visit parents upon Mid-Lent Sunday, is really owing to that good old custom.}}
  • * {{quote-journal , year=1894 , date=March 1894, Volume 21, Part 1 , author=Mary B. Merrill , title=Mothering Sunday , journal=St. Nicholas: a monthly magazine for boys and girls citation
    • , passage="Mothering' Sunday," the fourth Sunday in Lent, when absent sons and daughters — particularly the young apprentices — would return to their homes with some little present for both parents, but more especially for the mother. ...Imagine the ... pride of the mother in the simple gift, and the admiration of the small brothers and sisters who gathered around and longed for the time when they also would be out in the great unknown world and could come "a-' mothering ."}}