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CIDE DICTIONARY
OXFORD DICTIONARY
DEVIL DICTIONARY
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birth
CIDE DICTIONARY
birth, n. [OE. burth, birth, AS. beor, gebyrd, fr. beran to bear, bring forth; akin to D. geboorte, OHG. burt, giburt, G. geburt, Icel. bur, Skr. bhrti bearing, supporting; cf. Ir. & Gael. beirthe born, brought forth. Bear, and cf. Berth.].
- The act or fact of coming into life, or of being born; -- generally applied to human beings; as, the birth of a son. [1913 Webster]
- Lineage; extraction; descent; sometimes, high birth; noble extraction. [1913 Webster]"Elected without reference to birth, but solely for qualifications." [1913 Webster]
- The condition to which a person is born; natural state or position; inherited disposition or tendency. [1913 Webster]"A foe by birth to Troy's unhappy name." [1913 Webster]
- The act of bringing forth; as, she had two children at a birth. Milton. [1913 Webster]
- That which is born; that which is produced, whether animal or vegetable. [1913 Webster]"Poets are far rarer births than kings." [1913 Webster]"Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it is able to shift for itself." [1913 Webster]
- Origin; beginning; as, the birth of an empire. [1913 Webster]
Syn. -- Parentage; extraction; lineage; race; family.
birth, n.
See Berth. De Foe. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
birth, n. & v.
--n.
1 the emergence of a (usu. fully developed) infant or other young from the body of its mother.
2 rhet. the beginning or coming into existence of something (the birth of civilization; the birth of socialism).
3 a origin, descent, ancestry (of noble birth). b high or noble birth; inherited position.
--v.tr. US colloq.
1 to give birth to.
2 to assist (a woman) to give birth.
--n.
1 the emergence of a (usu. fully developed) infant or other young from the body of its mother.
2 rhet. the beginning or coming into existence of something (the birth of civilization; the birth of socialism).
3 a origin, descent, ancestry (of noble birth). b high or noble birth; inherited position.
--v.tr. US colloq.
1 to give birth to.
2 to assist (a woman) to give birth.
Idiom
birth certificate an official document identifying a person by name, place, date of birth, and parentage. birth control the control of the number of children one conceives, esp. by contraception. birth pill the contraceptive pill. birth rate the number of live births per thousand of population per year. give birth bear a child etc. give birth to
1 produce (young) from the womb.
2 cause to begin, found.
1 produce (young) from the womb.
2 cause to begin, found.
Etymology
ME f. ON byrth f. Gmc: see BEAR(1), -TH(2)
DEVIL DICTIONARY
birth
n. The first and direst of all disasters. As to the nature of it there appears to be no uniformity. Castor and Pollux were born from the egg. Pallas came out of a skull. Galatea was once a block of stone. Peresilis, who wrote in the tenth century, avers that he grew up out of the ground where a priest had spilled holy water. It is known that Arimaxus was derived from a hole in the earth, made by a stroke of lightning. Leucomedon was the son of a cavern in Mount Aetna, and I have myself seen a man come out of a wine cellar.THESAURUS
birth
Altmann theory, DNA, De Vries theory, Galtonian theory, Mendelianism, Mendelism, RNA, Verworn theory, Weismann theory, Weismannism, Wiesner theory, abiogenesis, abortion, accouchement, affiliation, allele, allelomorph, ancestry, animal spirits, animate existence, animation, apparentation, archigenesis, aristocracy, aristocraticalness, babyhood, bear, bearing, beget, beginning, beginnings, being alive, biogenesis, birth throes, birthing, blastogenesis, blessed event, blood, bloodline, blue blood, branch, breed, bring to birth, character, childbearing, childbed, childbirth, childhood, chromatid, chromatin, chromosome, commencement, common ancestry, confinement, consanguinity, cradle, creation, dawn, dawning, delivery, derivation, descent, determinant, determiner, development, diathesis, digenesis, direct line, distaff side, distinction, emergence, endowment, engender, epigenesis, eugenics, eumerogenesis, existence, extraction, factor, family, father, female line, filiation, freshman year, gene, generation, genesiology, genesis, genetic code, genetics, genteelness, gentility, give birth to, giving birth, hatching, having a baby, having life, hereditability, heredity, heritability, heritage, heterogenesis, histogenesis, homogenesis, honorable descent, house, immortality, inborn capacity, inception, inchoation, incipience, incipiency, incunabula, infancy, inheritability, inheritance, isogenesis, labor, life, lifetime, line, line of descent, lineage, liveliness, living, long life, longevity, male line, matrocliny, merogenesis, metagenesis, miscarriage, monogenesis, mother, multiparity, nascence, nascency, nativity, nobility, noble birth, nobleness, onset, opening, origin, origination, orthogenesis, outset, outstart, pangenesis, parentage, parthenogenesis, parturition, patrocliny, pharmacogenetics, phylum, pregnancy, procreate, procreation, quality, race, rank, recessive character, replication, royalty, seed, sept, side, sire, slip, spear side, spindle side, spontaneous generation, spriteliness, start, stem, stirps, stock, strain, succession, sword side, the Nativity, the stork, travail, viability, vitality, vivacity, youthROGET THESAURUS
birth
Beginning
N beginning, commencement, opening, outset, incipience, inception, inchoation, introduction, alpha, initial, inauguration, debut, le premier pas, embarcation, rising of the curtain, maiden speech, outbreak, onset, brunt, initiative, move, first move, narrow end of the wedge, thin end of the wedge, fresh start, new departure, origin, source, rise, bud, germ, egg, rudiment, genesis, primogenesis, birth, nativity, cradle, infancy, start, inception, creation, starting point, dawn, evolution, title-page, head, heading, van, caption, fatihah, entrance, entry, inlet, orifice, mouth, chops, lips, porch, portal, portico, propylon, door, gate, gateway, postern, wicket, threshold, vestibule, propylaeum, skirts, border, first stage, first blush, first glance, first impression, first sight, rudiments, elements, outlines, grammar, alphabet, ABC, beginning, initial, initiatory, initiative, inceptive, introductory, incipient, proemial, inaugural, inchoate, inchoative, embryonic, rudimental, primogenial, primeval, primitive, primordial, aboriginal, natal, nascent, first, foremost, leading, maiden, begun, just begun, at the beginning, in the beginning first, in the first place, imprimis, first and foremost, in limine, in the bud, in embryo, in its infancy, from the beginning, from its birth, ab initio, ab ovo, ab incunabilis, ab origine, let's get going!, let's get this show on the road!, up and at 'em!, aller Anfang ist schwer, dimidium facti qui coepit habet, omnium rerum principia parva sunt.Production
N production, creation, construction, formation, fabrication, manufacture, building, architecture, erection, edification, coinage, diaster, organization, nisus formativus, putting together, establishment, workmanship, performance, achievement, flowering, fructification, inflorescence, bringing forth, parturition, birth, birth-throe, childbirth, delivery, confinement, accouchement, travail, labor, midwifery, obstetrics, geniture, gestation, assimilation, evolution, development, growth, entelechy, fertilization, gemination, germination, heterogamy, genesis, generation, epigenesis, procreation, progeneration, propagation, fecundation, impregnation, albumen, spontaneous generation, archegenesis, archebiosis, biogenesis, abiogenesis, digenesis, dysmerogenesis, eumerogenesis, heterogenesis, oogenesis, merogenesis, metogenesis, monogenesis, parthenogenesis, homogenesis, xenogenesis, authorship, publication, works, opus, oeuvre, biogeny, dissogeny, xenogeny, tocogony, vacuolization, edifice, building, structure, fabric, erection, pile, tower, flower, fruit, produced, producing, productive of, prolific, creative, formative, genetic, genial, genital, pregnant, enceinte, big with, fraught with, in the family way, teeming, parturient, in the straw, brought to bed of, puerperal, puerperous, digenetic, heterogenetic, oogenetic, xenogenetic, ectogenous, gamic, haematobious, sporogenous, sporophorous, architectonic, ex nihilo nihil, fiat lux, materiam superabat opus, nemo dat quod non habet.Paternity
N paternity, parentage, consanguinity, parent, father, sire, dad, papa, paterfamilias, abba, genitor, progenitor, procreator, ancestor, grandsire, grandfather, great- grandfather, fathership, fatherhood, mabap, house, stem, trunk, tree, stock, stirps, pedigree, lineage, line, family, tribe, sept, race, clan, genealogy, descent, extraction, birth, ancestry, forefathers, forbears, patriarchs, motherhood, maternity, mother, dam, mamma, materfamilias, grandmother, paternal, parental, maternal, family, ancestral, linear, patriarchal, avi numerantur avorum, happy he with such a mother, hombre bueno no le busquen abolengo, philosophia stemma non inspicit.Nobility
N nobility, rank, condition, distinction, optimacy, blood, pur sang, birth, high descent, order, quality, gentility, blue blood of Castile, ancien regime, high life, haute monde, upper classes, upper ten thousand, the four hundred, elite, aristocracy, great folks, fashionable world, peer, peerage, house of lords, house of peers, lords, lords temporal and spiritual, noblesse, noble, nobleman, lord, lordling, grandee, magnifico, hidalgo, daimio, daimyo, samurai, shizoku, don, donship, aristocrat, swell, three- tailed bashaw, gentleman, squire, squireen, patrician, laureate, gentry, gentlefolk, squirarchy, better sort magnates, primates, optimates, pantisocracy, king, atheling, prince, duke, marquis, marquisate, earl, viscount, baron, thane, banneret, baronet, baronetcy, knight, knighthood, count, armiger, laird, signior, seignior, esquire, boyar, margrave, vavasour, emir, ameer, scherif, sharif, effendi, wali, sahib, chevalier, maharaja, nawab, palsgrave, pasha, rajah, waldgrave, princess, begum, duchess, marchioness, countess, lady, dame, memsahib, Do$a, maharani, rani, personage of distinction, man of distinction, personage of rank, man of rank, personage of mark, man of mark, notables, notabilities, celebrity, bigwig, magnate, great man, star, superstar, big bug, big gun, great gun, gilded rooster, magni nominis umbra, every inch a king, noble, exalted, of rank, princely, titled, patrician, aristocratic, high-, well-born, of gentle blood, genteel, comme il faut, gentlemanlike, courtly, highly respectable, in high quarters, Adel sitzt im Gemuthe nicht im Gebluete, adelig und edel sind zweierlei, noblesse oblige.Also see definition of "birth" in Bible Study Dictionaries
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