alma mater

alma mater

1. The school that one attended. One typically only uses the term after graduating from the school. I am visiting my alma mater this weekend, and I hope that some of my old professors are still there. Your alma mater did not fare so well in the big game!
2. A school's official song. In high school, we had to memorize the words to our alma mater. They play the alma mater every year at graduation.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

alma mater

Also, Alma Mater. The school or college one attended and, usually, graduated from, as in During football season I always check to see how my alma mater is doing. This expression sometimes refers to the institution's official song, as in I never did learn the words to my college's alma mater. The term is Latin for "kind mother." [c. 1800]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • sock hop
  • let out of
  • let out of (something or some place)
  • old school tie
  • the old school tie
  • How do you like school?
  • alight from
  • dropout factory
  • teach school
  • new school
References in periodicals archive
Alma Mater caters to all the customization needs, be it a corporate event, family function, friends reunion, or for any event or college festival, or just for one's own purpose.
Columns (2a)-(2c) of Table 4 report the results with respect to alma mater affiliation.
Appreciating the Dr Ishtiaq's agenda of reforms, he said that he was happy to see his derailed alma mater back to the track.
19 ( ANI ): Electricity connection at former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam's alma mater 'Mandapam Panchayat union middle school' in Rameswaram has been cut off by electricity board after the school management failed to pay the electricity bill for two years.
She was also invited by New York's Stony Brook University, her alma mater, to receive the '40 Under Forty' award.
'Maraming salamat po sa aking Alma Mater na UST sa pagbigay sa akin ng 'Gawad Thomasian Alumni in Government Service'.
SIALKOT -- A symposium on Iqbaliyat was held at Government Murray College Sialkot, the alma mater of Allama Iqbal, on Thursday.
In his last year in the Legislature, he was named "Statesman of the Year" by his alma mater, and in 2005 the university renamed an auditorium the "Diane and Chick Bilyeu Theatre" in honor of the couple.
For more than 30 years, she was a professor at her alma mater, the University of Michigan.
have a permanent home at the civil rights leader's alma mater, Morehouse College, thanks to the efforts of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.
Shame, shame on Saint Francis Xavier University, my Alma Mater, for conferring an honorary Doctor of Laws on a promoter of the "culture of death," the millionaire socialist, Alexa McDonough.
I was surprised to see my alma mater, Abilene Christian University, mentioned in your story on the Equality Ride.
Treasurer George Herbst's prior experience handling a windfall donation at another institution meant he knew to be grateful for one particular fact: Cornell had given his alma mater some advance notice on the gift.
Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots and two-time Super Bowl most valuable player, has donated his 2004 Super Bowl MVP Cadillac to his alma mater, Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, Calif., for the school's annual benefit auction Nov.
O'Reilly has been inducted into three Hall of Fames, including his alma mater, Illinois State University, and the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.