womb

nounverbcommon in dialogue

//wuːm//

In female mammals, the organ in which the young are conceived and grow until birth; the uterus.

noun

1
In female mammals, the organ in which the young are conceived and grow until birth; the uterus.
I danced myself right out the womb / Is it strange to dance so soon?
2
obsoleteThe abdomen or stomach.
And his hede, hym semed,was enamyled with asure, and his shuldyrs shone as the golde, and his wombe was lyke mayles of a merveylous hew[…].
3
obsoleteThe stomach of a person or creature.
4
figurativeA place where something is made or formed.
The womb of earth the genial seed receives.
The shadows of the future hours rose dark and menacing from the womb of time [...]
5
Any cavity containing and enveloping anything.
The centre spike of gold Which burns deep in the blue-bell's womb.

Etymology

From Middle English wombe, wambe, from Old English womb, wamb (“belly, stomach; bowels; heart; womb; hollow”), from Proto-West Germanic *wambu, from Proto-Germanic *wambō (“belly, stomach, abdomen”). 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 vom (“rumen”), 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”). Superseded nonnative Middle English mater, matere (“womb”), and matris, matrice (“womb”) borrowed from Latin māter (“womb”) and Old French matrice (“womb”), respectively.

verb

1
obsoleteTo enclose in a womb, or as if in a womb; to breed or hold in secret.

Forms

plural: wombs
past tense: wombed
past participle: wombed
present participle: wombing
third person singular: wombs

Wolverine · A native or resident of the American state of Michigan.Wolves · Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.woman · An adult female human.

womb · In female mammals, the organ in which the young are conceived and grow until birth; the uterus.

Women · The fourth sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.won · The currency of Korea, worth 100 jun in North Korea and 100…wonder · A sense of awe, astonishment and curiosity, inspired by…

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.