/bɜːθ/, /bɜɹθ/, /bɛɹθ/
OriginThe noun is derived from Late Middle English birth (“(nautical) bearing away or off, clearance, berth”). Further etymology uncertain, but probably from beren (“to carry (away), bear”) + -th (suffix denoting a condition, quality, state of being, etc., forming nouns); if so, the English word is analysable as bear + -th (suffix forming nouns from verbs), and is a piecewise doublet of birth.
The verb is derived from the noun.
- broadlyA place for a vessel to lie at anchor or to moor.
“Tho' vve vvere again got near our harbour by three in the afternoon, yet it ſeemed to require a full hour or more, before vve could come to our former place of anchoring, or birth, as the captain call”
“"[…] She lays close to the Endymion, between her and the Cleopatra, just to the eastward of the sheer hulk." / "Ha!" cried William, "that's just where I should have put her myself. It's the best birth”
“The voyage was a skilful and lucky one; and returning to her berth with her hold full of the precious sperm, the Amelia's example was soon followed by other ships, English and American, and thus the v”
- broadlyA room in a vessel in which the officers or company mess (“eat together”) and reside; also, a room or other place in a vessel for storage.
“And vvhen he had ſhevvn me their birth (as he called it) I vvas filled vvith aſtoniſhment and horror.—VVe deſcended by divers ladders to a ſpace as dark as a dungeon, vvhich I underſtood vvas immerſed”
“But not only was this the first day that Jack may be said to have appeared in the service, but it was the first day in which he had entered the midshipman's berth, and was made acquainted with his mes”
- broadlyA place on a vessel to sleep, especially a bed on the side of a cabin.
“Passengers their births are clapt in, / Some to grumble, some to spew. / 'Hey day! call you that a cabin? / Why 'tis hardly three feet square; / Not enough to stow Queen Mab in— / Who the deuce can ha”
“Just at this moment, in crossing the forecastle, one of the men saw a light below, and looking down the scuttle, saw the watch all out of their berths, and afoul of one poor fellow, dragging him out o”
“All dressed and dusty as he is, Jonah throws himself into his berth, and finds the little state-room ceiling almost resting on his forehead. […] The lamp alarms and frightens Jonah; as lying in his be”
- broadlyA job or position on a vessel.
“He was now a temperate man for life, and capable of filling any berth in a ship, and many a high station there is on shore which is held by a meaner man.”
- broadlyAn assigned place for a person in (chiefly historical) a horse-drawn coach or other means of transportation, or (military) in a barracks.
“[W]ith worldly wisdom, the first comer hastens to secure the best birth in the coach for himself, and to make the most convenient arrangement for his baggage before the arrival of his competitor.”
- broadlyA bunk or other bed for sleeping on in a caravan, a train, etc.
“Some passengers boarded the train there and I heard a woman's low tones, a southern voice, rich and full. Then quiet again. Every nerve was tense: time passed, perhaps ten minutes, possibly half an ho”
“It is realised that the old Pullman standard sleeper, with its convertible "sections", each containing upper and lower berths, and with no greater privacy at night than the curtains drawn along both s”
- broadlyA place for a vehicle on land to park.
- figurativelyAn appointment, job, or position, especially one regarded as comfortable or good.
“He vvas a Surgeon, and they called him Doctor; but he vvas not employed in the Sloop as a Surgeon, but vvas going to Berbadoes to get a Birth, as the Sailors call it.”
“[Y]ou have got a good vvarm birth here; but vve ſhall beat up your quarters. Here, Lucy, Moll, come to the fire, and dry your trumpery.”
“Howsomever, I 'll do the very best I can in gettin' Tom a good berth; as to my treatin' on him bad, you need n't be a grain afeard.”
- figurativelyChiefly in wide berth: a sufficient space for manoeuvring or safety.
“The road was very narrow, with no opportunity of giving the apparent phantom what seamen call a wide birth.”
“Sir Barnes Newcome, for fear of consequences that I should deplore, I recommend you to keep a wide berth of me, sir.”
“[W]e / Thought it but wise to keep the open sea / And give to warring lands a full wide berth; […]”
- figuratively, slangA proper place for a thing.
“[T]he Maſter-builders appoint the VVorking or Converting, as they call it, of every Piece of Timber, and give to the other Head-vvorkmen or Foremen, their Moulds for the ſquaring and cutting out of ev”
- figurativelyA position or seed in a tournament bracket.
- figurativelyA position on a field of play.
“Olivier Giroud then entered the fray and [Theo] Walcott reverted to his more familiar berth on the right wing, quickly creating his side's fifth goal by crossing for Giroud to send a plunging header i”
- transitiveTo bring (a ship or other vessel) into a berth (noun etymology 1 sense 1.1); also, to provide a berth for (a vessel).
“"The Henery," being let loose to drive up the river of herself, did run up as high as the bridge, and broke down some of the rails of the bridge, and so back again with the tide, and up again, and the”
“Further west, in Pembrokeshire, the Esso Petroleum Co. refinery at Milford Haven, opened last November, is designed to berth the world's largest tankers and to process, initially, 4,500,000 tons of cr”
- specifically, transitiveTo use a device to bring (a spacecraft) into its berth or dock.
- broadly, transitiveTo assign (someone) a berth (noun etymology 1 sense 1.3 or etymology 1 sense 2.2) or place to sleep on a vessel, a train, etc.
- figuratively, transitiveTo provide (someone) with a berth (noun etymology 1 sense 3.1) or appointment, job, or position.
- intransitive, reflexiveOf a vessel: to move into a berth.
- broadly, intransitiveOf a person: to occupy a berth.
“The cabin-boy Ransome […] came in at times from the round-house, where he berthed and served, now nursing a bruised limb in silent agony, now raving against the cruelty of Mr. Shuan.”
- archaic, historicalChiefly in shipbuilding: to construct (a ship or part of it) using wooden boards or planks; to board, to plank.
“VVhen you haue berthed or brought her [the ship] vp to the planks, vvhich are thoſe thicke timbers vvhich goeth fore and aft on each ſide, vvhereon doth lie the beames of the firſt Orlop, vvhich is th”
Formsberths(plural) · birth(alternative) · byrth(alternative) · berths(present, singular, third-person) · berthing(participle, present) · berthed(participle, past) · berthed(past)