Womb

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /wuːm/
• Rhymes: -uːm

Alternative forms

• wame dialectal

Origin

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").

Full definition of womb

Noun

1. (anatomy) In female mammals, the organ in which the young are conceived and grow until birth; the uterus. from 8th c.
2. (obsolete) The abdomen or stomach. 8th-17th c.
• 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book V: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. (obsolete) The stomach of a person or creature. 8th-18th c.
• 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 15th c.
• DrydenThe womb of earth the genial seed receives.
5. Any cavity containing and enveloping anything.
• Robert BrowningThe centre spike of gold
  Which burns deep in the bluebell's womb.

Synonyms

• (organ in mammals) uterus, matrix (poetic or literary), belly (poetic or literary)

Verb

1. (obsolete) To enclose in a womb, or as if in a womb; to breed or hold in secret.