MOTHER LODE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Mother lode

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/mˈəðər loʊd/ Listen

noun

Lode n.

A water course or way; a reach of water. "Down that long, dark lode... he and his brother skated home in triumph."

(Mining) A body of ore visibly separated from adjacent rock.

Especially: (Mining) Any regular vein or course of valuable mineral, whether metallic or not.

Hence: A concentrated supply or source of something valuable.

mother lode a large concentrated source of mineral or other valuable thing, from which lesser sources have been derived; often used figuratively. The term may have been originally applied to real or imagined large deposits of gold from which smaller granules were washed downstream, there constituting a diluted source of gold, and hinting at the richer source from which they were derived; as, to hit the mother lode.

See images of 'Mother lode'

Etymology of 'Mother lode'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Mother lode" Quotes from Famous Books

... were like those of California where the richest gold finds were made. He was alone at the time, though the rest of his command was only a few miles away, but he picked among the rocks and saw enough to prove that it was a mother lode, a great gold seam that would make many men millionaires. It was his intention to resign from the army, get permission from the Sioux to come in, organize a company, and work what he meant to be the Clarke mine. But you know ...

— The Great Sioux Trail - A Story of Mountain and Plain • Joseph Altsheler