Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The emergence and separation of offspring from the body of the mother.
- noun The act or process of bearing young; parturition.
- noun The circumstances or conditions relating to this event, as its time or location.
- noun The set of characteristics or circumstances received from one's ancestors; inheritance.
- noun Origin; extraction.
- noun Noble or high status.
- noun A beginning or commencement. synonym: beginning.
- transitive verb To deliver (a baby).
- transitive verb Chiefly Southern US To bear (a child).
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun See
berth . - noun The fact of being born; nativity.
- noun By extension, any act or fact of coming into existence; beginning; origination: as, the birth of Protestantism.
- noun The act of bearing or bringing forth; parturition: as, “at her next birth,”
- noun The condition into which a person is born; lineage; extraction; descent: as, Grecian birth; noble birth: sometimes, absolutely, descent from noble or honorable parents and ancestors: as, a man of birth.
- noun That which is born; that which is produced.
- noun Nature; kind; sex; natural character.
- noun In astrology, nativity; fortune.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The act or fact of coming into life, or of being born; -- generally applied to human beings.
- noun Lineage; extraction; descent; sometimes, high birth; noble extraction.
- noun The condition to which a person is born; natural state or position; inherited disposition or tendency.
- noun The act of bringing forth.
- noun That which is born; that which is produced, whether animal or vegetable.
- noun Origin; beginning.
- noun (Theol.) regeneration, or the commencement of a religious life.
- noun obsolete See
berth .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable The process of
childbearing . - noun countable An instance of
childbirth . - noun countable A beginning or start; a point of origin.
- noun uncountable The circumstances of one's background, ancestry, or upbringing.
- adjective A familial relationship established by childbirth.
- verb To
bear orgive birth to (a child). - verb figuratively To
produce ,give rise to.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb cause to be born
- noun the process of giving birth
- noun the time when something begins (especially life)
- noun the kinship relation of an offspring to the parents
- noun a baby born; an offspring
- noun the event of being born
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word birth.
Examples
-
Another objection was her birth: "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" but as it was _birth merely and solely_, {p. 254} this has been abandoned.
Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume I (of 10) 1824
-
V. i.214 (376, 4) [Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty] [W. in birth] _Worth_ is as proper as _birth.
Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies Samuel Johnson 1746
-
WARBURTON.] _Native_ is here not natural birth, but _natural parent_, or _cause of birth_.
Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies Samuel Johnson 1746
-
And they don't use the term "birth control" for IUDs and some forms of the pill that do destroy fertilized eggs, or have the potential to do so.
Jason Salzman: Media Omission: Romney Supported Personhood Four Years Ago Jason Salzman 2011
-
And they don't use the term "birth control" for IUDs and some forms of the pill that do destroy fertilized eggs, or have the potential to do so.
Jason Salzman: Media Omission: Romney Supported Personhood Four Years Ago Jason Salzman 2011
-
And they don't use the term "birth control" for IUDs and some forms of the pill that do destroy fertilized eggs, or have the potential to do so.
Jason Salzman: Media Omission: Romney Supported Personhood Four Years Ago Jason Salzman 2011
-
And they don't use the term "birth control" for IUDs and some forms of the pill that do destroy fertilized eggs, or have the potential to do so.
Jason Salzman: Media Omission: Romney Supported Personhood Four Years Ago Jason Salzman 2011
-
Bettmann/Corbis THE ADVOCATE | Sanger around 1915, a year after she coined the term 'birth control.'
The Road to the Pill Ruth Graham 2011
-
So much gentler than dead baby or grey lifeless body, with the word birth even being a cruel hoax, since the child will never take a breath and their mother's soul will be forever changed by an immutable, indelible loss.
Kate Grant: Tale Of Two Mothers Kate Grant 2011
-
So much gentler than dead baby or grey lifeless body, with the word birth even being a cruel hoax, since the child will never take a breath and their mother's soul will be forever changed by an immutable, indelible loss.
Kate Grant: Tale Of Two Mothers Kate Grant 2011
-
One of the things that all the pregnancy-advice books tell you to do is to put together a “birth plan,” which is essentially a delusional itinerary that you write for how you want this event you’ve never experienced to go, which you then give to doctors and nurses who have assisted on thousands of births, in order to make them hate you.
My Slightly Unreal Pandemic Pregnancy Condé Nast 2021
PossibleUnderscore commented on the word birth
London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirtyfive for years.
-Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
July 29, 2009