/bɜːθ/, /bɜːð/, /bɜɹθ/
OriginFrom Middle English birthen, birðen, from the noun (see above).
- uncountableThe process of childbearing; the beginning of life; the emergence of a human baby or other viviparous animal offspring from the mother's body into the environment.
- countableAn instance of childbirth.
“Intersex babies account for roughly one per cent of all births.”
“In Greece a child was given its name on the seventh or tenth day after birth.”
- countableA beginning or start; a point of origin.
- uncountableThe circumstances of one's background, ancestry, or upbringing.
“He was of noble birth, but fortune had not favored him.”
“without reference to birth, but solely for their qualifications”
“Lucy […] had no fortune, which, though a minor evil, was an evil; and she had no birth, in the high-life sense of the word, which was a greater evil.”
- countable, uncountableThat which is born.
“That poets are far rarer births than kings.”
“Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it is able to shift for itself.”
- not-comparableA familial relationship established by childbirth.
“Her birth father left when she was a baby; she was raised by her mother and stepfather.”
- transitiveTo bear or give birth to (a child).
“I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!”
“Kelly: Is it true we have a pod containing a baby krogan down in the cargo hold?
Shepard: Not a baby. He's a full-grown super soldier ready for combat.
Kelly: Please be careful if you decide to... err”
“She cites some recent examples from the papers: “I birthed two babies in rapid succession”; Beyoncé “birthed her twins”; while somewhere else in the same paper a woman proudly proclaimed: “I birthed a”
- figuratively, transitiveTo produce, give rise to.
“Biological evolution created a human mind that enabled cultural evolution, which now outpaces and outclasses the force that birthed it.”
Formsbirths(plural) · births(present, singular, third-person) · birthing(participle, present) · birthed(participle, past) · birthed(past)
Source: Wiktionary