Wordnet 3.0
NOUN (1)
1.
a woman who bears a child for a couple where the wife is unable to do so;
- Example: "a surrogate mother is artificially inseminated with the father's semen and carries the fetus to term"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Surrogate mother \Sur"ro*gate mother\, n.
1. a person or who serves in place of the biological mother
for child, as for caring or nurturing.
[PJC]
2. a female animal that raises and nurses the offspring of
another animal.
[PJC]
3. a woman who becomes pregnant by an artificial procedure
(one other than copulation), and bears a child to be
raised by another person. The person on whose behalf the
child is gestated and born is usually one of the
biological parents. The embryo carried by the surrogate
mother may be created by in vitro fertilization, and may
have no genetic material from the surrogate mother, or the
surrogate mother may be impregnated by artificial
insemination, usually by sperm donated by the father who
is to raise the child.
Note: The procedure is common but controversial, and in some
states of the United States, contracts for surrogacy
are not considered enforceable.
[PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
surrogate mother
n 1: a woman who bears a child for a couple where the wife is
unable to do so; "a surrogate mother is artificially
inseminated with the father's semen and carries the fetus
to term"