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Webster 1913 Edition

Womb

Womb

(woōm)
,
Noun.
[OE.
wombe
,
wambe
, AS.
wamb
,
womb
; akin to D.
wam
belly, OS. & OHG.
wamba
, G.
wamme
,
wampe
, Icel.
vömb
, Sw.
våmb
, Dan.
vom
, Goth.
wamba
.]
1.
The belly; the abdomen.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
And he coveted to fill his
woman
of the cods that the hogs eat, and no man gave him.
Wyclif (Luke xv. 16).
An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were simply the most active fellow in Europe. My
womb
, my
womb
, my
womb
undoes me.
Shakespeare
2.
(Anat.)
The uterus. See
Uterus
.
3.
The place where anything is generated or produced.
The
womb
of earth the genial seed receives.
Dryden.
4.
Any cavity containing and enveloping anything.
The center spike of gold
Which burns deep in the bluebell’s
womb
.
R. Browning.

Womb

,
Verb.
T.
To inclose in a womb, or as in a womb; to breed or hold in secret.
[Obs.]
Shak.

Webster 1828 Edition

Womb

WOMB

,
Noun.
Woom. [G.]
1.
The uterus or matrix of a female; that part where the young of an animal is conceived and nourished till its birth.
2.
The place where any thing is produced.
The womb of earth the genial seed receives.
3.
Any large or deep cavity.
Womb of the morning, in Scripture, the clouds, which distill dew; supposed to be emblematic of the church bringing forth multitudes to Christ. Psalm 110.

WOMB

,
Verb.
T.
To inclose; to breed in secret. [Not in use.]

Definition 2024

womb

womb

English

Alternative forms

Noun

womb ‎(plural wombs)

  1. (anatomy) In female mammals, the organ in which the young are conceived and grow until birth; the uterus. [from 8thc.]
  2. (obsolete) The abdomen or stomach. [8th-17thc.]
  3. (obsolete) The stomach of a person or creature. [8th-18thc.]
    • 1395, John Wycliffe, Bible, Jonah II:
      And þe Lord made redi a gret fish þat he shulde swolewe Ionas; and Ionas was in wombe of þe fish þre daȝes and þre niȝtis.
  4. (figuratively) A place where something is made or formed. [from 15thc.]
    • Dryden
      The womb of earth the genial seed receives.
    • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 2, chapter 7
      The shadows of the future hours rose dark and menacing from the womb of time [...]
  5. Any cavity containing and enveloping anything.
    • Robert Browning
      The centre spike of gold / Which burns deep in the bluebell's womb.

Synonyms

Translations

Verb

womb ‎(third-person singular simple present wombs, present participle wombing, simple past and past participle wombed)

  1. (obsolete) To enclose in a womb, or as if in a womb; to breed or hold in secret.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Etymology

From Middle English wombe, wambe, from Old English womb, wamb ‎(“belly, stomach; bowels; heart; womb; hollow”), from Proto-Germanic *wambō ‎(“belly, stomach, abdomen”), from Proto-Indo-European *wamp- ‎(“membrane (of bowels), intestines, womb”). Cognate with Scots wam, wame ‎(“womb”), Dutch wam ‎(“dewlap of beef; belly of a fish”), German Wamme, Wampe ‎(“paunch, belly”), Danish vom ‎(“belly, paunch, rumen”), Swedish våmb ‎(“belly, stomach, rumen”), Norwegian vomb ‎(“belly”), Icelandic vömb ‎(“belly, abdomen, stomach”), Old Welsh gumbelauc ‎(“womb”), Breton gwamm ‎(“woman, wife”), Sanskrit वपा ‎(vapā́, “the skin or membrane lining the intestines or parts of the viscera, the caul or omentum”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /wuːm/
  • Rhymes: -uːm

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