"only a mother could love" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "From the instinctual love that a mother has for her offspring.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "only a mother could love",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1995, Nancy Pickard, Confession, page 5",
          "text": "There was an interesting face beneath the spots, I thought as I looked at him, but at the moment at which fate rang our doorbell it was still a face only a mother could love, which was a problem for the boy on our doorstep.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Tyler R. Tichelaar, The Only Thing That Lasts, page 164",
          "text": "Mark was someone only a mother could love—but I did feel sorry for his mother.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Lori Duron ·, Raising My Rainbow",
          "text": "Sometimes, when he does something that only a mother could love, I get scared.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Amy Newmark, Chicken Soup for the Soul",
          "text": "It was a wreath only a mother could love.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Ian Brennan, Silenced by Sound: The Music Meritocracy Myth",
          "text": "It was a song that only a mother could love.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021, Michio Kaku, The God Equation",
          "text": "The resulting animal, it was said, was one only a mother could love.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to describe someone or something very unlovable or repulsive."
      ],
      "id": "en-only_a_mother_could_love-en-phrase-kLqSBEvZ",
      "links": [
        [
          "unlovable",
          "unlovable#English"
        ],
        [
          "repulsive",
          "repulsive#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "only a mother could love"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "From the instinctual love that a mother has for her offspring.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "only a mother could love",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1995, Nancy Pickard, Confession, page 5",
          "text": "There was an interesting face beneath the spots, I thought as I looked at him, but at the moment at which fate rang our doorbell it was still a face only a mother could love, which was a problem for the boy on our doorstep.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Tyler R. Tichelaar, The Only Thing That Lasts, page 164",
          "text": "Mark was someone only a mother could love—but I did feel sorry for his mother.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Lori Duron ·, Raising My Rainbow",
          "text": "Sometimes, when he does something that only a mother could love, I get scared.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Amy Newmark, Chicken Soup for the Soul",
          "text": "It was a wreath only a mother could love.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Ian Brennan, Silenced by Sound: The Music Meritocracy Myth",
          "text": "It was a song that only a mother could love.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021, Michio Kaku, The God Equation",
          "text": "The resulting animal, it was said, was one only a mother could love.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to describe someone or something very unlovable or repulsive."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "unlovable",
          "unlovable#English"
        ],
        [
          "repulsive",
          "repulsive#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "only a mother could love"
}