Meaning of refrigerator mother | Babel Free

Definitions

An emotionally frigid mother, who does not exhibit normal care or love for her child or children.

dated, derogatory, idiomatic

Examples

“It was not until 1943 that Dr. Leo Kanner, an American pschiatrist, first diagnosed the syndrome in 11 children. . . . Kanner and others once postulated that these children were the products of "refrigerator mothers," women who are overly cold and intellectual.”

“No present-day researcher takes the idea of the refrigerator mother as the cause of autism seriously.”

CEFR level