Definition of Birth

Billingsgate

BIRTH noun

	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.

		definition from: *The Devil's Dictionary* by Ambrose Bierce, 1911

Blackguard

Regular definition:

BIRTH:
b?:? 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. øbirth 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. [ME f. ON byrth f. Gmc: see BEAR(1), -TH(2)]

Last updated: 9/3/2011 12:48:30