Womb sb.

Forms: α. 1–2, 4 wamb, 4–5 wambe; see also WAME. β. 1– womb; 1 uommb, 3–7 wombe, 5 north. vombe, 6 Sc. voyme, voymbe. [Com. Teut.: OE. wamb, womb str. fem. = (M)LG., MDu. wamme (Du. wam), OHG. wamba, wampa (MHG. wamme, wampe, G. wamme, dial. wampe), ON. vǫmb (MSw. vamb), Goth. wamba κοιλία, γαστήρ: ulterior relations obscure.

  For a Romance deriv. of the Teut. word see GAMBESON.]

  † 1.  = BELLY a. The abdomen. Obs.

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, xliii[i]. 25. Adhesit in terra venter noster, ætfalh in eorðan womb ur.

a. 1000.  Riddles, xxxvii. 3. Ic wiht ʓeseah on weʓe feran, seo … hæfde feowere fet under wombe.

c. 1205.  Lay., 19800. His neb bigon to blakien, his wombe gon to swellen.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 10794. Wan richard þe marschal … toward is fon in þe feld haþ is wombe iwent, Ssold he turne hom is rugh?

c. 1305.  Judas Isc., 141, in E. E. P. (1862), 111. His wombe to-berste amidde atuo.

c. 1340.  Nominale (Skeat), 66. Inwyth the wombe of man … Is herte lyuer and longes.

13[?].  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 144. His wombe & his wast were worthily smale.

1390.  Gower, Conf., I. 24. Tharmes, The wombe and al doun to the kne, Of bras thei were. Ibid., III. 215. What man that … wery is to swinke, Upon his wombe and lith to drinke, Forsak.

a. 1425.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 635/33. Hic uenter, wambe.

c. 1430.  Two Cookery-bks., 39. Take þe Wombe or A luce, & seþe here wyl.

c. 1440.  Pallad. on Husb., I. 53. Her wombis [L. venter, aut viscera], sidis, reynys, swelle or ake.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, e iij b. All thyng with in the wombe saue onli the gall.

1509.  Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1874), I. 12. If he haue a great wombe, and his Cofers ful.

1526.  R. Whytford, Martiloge, 100. They were racked,… than were theyr wombes or belyes flayne the skynne of.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iii. 25. And I had but a belly of any indifferencie, I were simply the most actiue fellow in Europe: my wombe, my wombe, my wombe vndoes mee.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., X. 462. The Tormentor … drew violently with his hands, making my Wombe support the force of his feete.

1684.  J. S., Profit & Pleas. United, 35. As for your Mare; let her have a compleat Body, Indifferent Long with a large Womb.

  † b.  The stomach (as the receptacle of food).

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xv. 17. Ne oncnauas ʓie forðon eʓhuelc þæt in muð inngaas in womb gans?

a. 1100.  Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 159/27. Aluus, rif uel seo inre wamb.

c. 1160.  Hatton Gosp., Luke xv. 16. Ða ʓewilnede he his wambe fellen of þam beancoddan þe þa swin æten.

a. 1200.  Moral Ode, 145, in O. E. Hom., I. 169. Ful wombe mei lihtliche speken of hunger & of festen.

c. 1200.  Vices & Virtues, 137. Of here wombe hie makið here godd.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 37. Þe fule man þe foleȝeð his wombes wil.

13[?].  Cursor M., 536 (Gött.). Manes wambe all licur drinkis.

1340.  Ayenb., 53. Þanne ssolle we betuene þe porse and þe wombe of þe glotoune habbe a uayr strif.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. VII. 162. Hongur … wrong him so be þe wombe, þat boþe his eȝen watreden.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., B. 462. He … Fallez on þe foule flesch & fyllez his wombe.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Monk’s T., 447. Thanne sholde nat hunger in my wombe crepe.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 170. Withe ful wombe they preche of abstynence.

c. 1430.  Two Cookery-bks., 39. Do in þe grete wombe of þe Schepe, þat is, the mawe.

1515.  Barclay, Egloges, iv. (1570), C iij b/2. When ye be mery and stuffed is your wombe … Then laude ye songes.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, XXVI. viii. II. 248. The wombe … oftentimes in a day calleth unto us for victuals.

1603.  J. Davies (Heref.), Microcosmos, Wks. (Grosart), I. 58/2. If nought from without come in the wombe The Body needes must die.

1756.  Poor Robin, June B 1 b. Who makes a swill tub of his womb, Is but a speaking, prattling tomb.

  † c.  The bowels. Obs.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., II. 186. Se ʓeþiʓeda mete hefeʓaþ þone maʓan & he þone sammeltan þurh ða wambe utsent.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (1919), xviii. 101. Men putten it in medicynes … to make the Wombe lax.

c. 1400.  trans. Secr. Secr., Gov. Lordsh., 70. A potage nesshe and laxatyue to þe wombe.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 51. If þat he be feble … voide þe fecis of his wombe bi clisterie.

c. 1430.  Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, II. xxxiv. (1869), 88. Þou berest him to priuee chambres … to voide his wombe.

1544.  Phaër, Regim. Lyfe (1560), M ij. It is holsome for you, every day once to procure the duety of the wombe.

  † d.  The belly-piece of a hide or skin. Obs.

1434.  Will of Ruddok (Somerset Ho.). Calabir wombis.

1483.  in Antiq. Rep. (1807), I. 32. A greete bordure and purfile of ermyne wombes.

1531.  Dunmow Churchw. MS., lf. 11 b. Item, for a payer of wombs tande…, vi d ob.

1551–2.  Act 5 & 6. Edw. VI., c. 15 § 3. Everie Girdler … maye … sell … Neckes, Wombes and Shreddes of tanned Leather.

1592.  Greene, Upst. Courtier, Wks. (Grosart), XI. 269. Whereas you should only put the backs of skinnes into facing, you taw the wombs.

1612.  Sc. Bk. Rates, in Halyburton’s Ledger (1867), 305. Beaver bellies or wombes the peice, viii s.

  ¶ (a)  In translations of the Vulgate rendering venter in the sense of ‘heart, soul.’

c. 825.  Vesp. Hymns, vi. 31. Expavit venter meus, forhtade womb min.

1382.  Wyclif, Ecclus. li. 29. My wombe [later version soule] is disturbid in sechyng it.

  (b)  trans. L. ventriculus = VENTRICLE 1.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxxvi. (1495), i vij b/2. The herte hath two holownesses … And thise two holownesses ben callyd the wombes of the herte [L. ventriculi cordis]. Ibid., i viij/1. In the wombe of the hert is a pyece shappe as an eere wythout.

  2.  The uterus.

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, cxxvi[i]. 3. Fructus ventris, westem wombe.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Luke xxiii. 29. Eadʓo biðon ða unberendo & ða wombo ðaðe ne acendon.

c. 1200.  Vices & Virtues, 87. Hy mai ðat moder forȝeten ðat child ðe hie bar in hire wombe?

c. 1205.  Lay., 199. Heuede Lauine þa quene kinebearn on wombe.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 3460. Childir tuin Þat lai þer moder wamb wit-in.

c. 1400.  Beryn, 859. A child gan stere in hir vombe.

c. 1440.  Alphabet of Tales, 63. What wommans wambe myght bere so grete a light?

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 134. They were his bretherne of one wombe descended.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 94. Birds, that are shaped without the Females Wombe, haue in the Egge … Matter of Nourishment.

1718.  Prior, Solomon, III. 115. Naked from the Womb We yesterday came forth.

1820.  Shelley, Cloud, 83. Like a child from the womb.

1842.  Tennyson, Day-dream, 28. Like hints and echoes of the world To spirits folded in the womb.

  3.  transf. A hollow space or cavity, or something conceived as such (e.g., the depth of night); † also, a belly-shaped object or part.

969.  in Birch, Cart. Sax., III. 532. Þæt swa on east crofte þæt swa ondlong þære heʓe ræwe þæt on ondoncilles wombe.

a. 1000.  Riddles, iv. 48. [Clouds] feallan lætað sweart sumsendu seaw of bosme, wætan of wombe. Ibid., xxxviii. 1. Ic þa wihte ʓeseah; womb wæs on hindan þriþum aþrinten.

1382.  Wyclif, Isa. xix. 7. Nakened shal be the flod wombe [alveus rivi].

c. 1391.  Chaucer, Astrol., I. § 3. The moder of thin Astrelabie is þe thikkeste plate, perced with a large hole, þat resseyuyth in hir wombe the thynne plates.

1471.  Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 56. I had moche leuer that the erthe wold opene and swalwe me in to his wombe.

1588.  Shaks., Tit. A., II. iii. 239. I may be pluckt into the swallowing wombe, Of this deepe pit, poore Bassianus graue. Ibid. (1592), Rom. & Jul., V. i. 65. As violently, as hastie powder fier’d Doth hurry from the fatall Canons wombe.

1602.  Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. v. Yee sootie coursers of the night, Hurrie your chariot into hels black wombe.

1615.  Chapman, Odyss., X. 471. The fourth brought water, and made fuel shine In ruddy fires beneath a womb of brass.

1616.  T. Scot, Philomythie, I 3 b. And both these rudely enter The strong ships wombe.

1661.  J. Childrey, Brit. Baconica, 141. When the wind is gathered into that hole, and tossed to and fro in the womb of it, there is to be heard as it were a musicall sound.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, XII. 1278. What Earth will open her devouring Womb, To rest a weary Goddess in the Tomb?

1715.  trans. Pancirollus’ Mem. Things, II. x. 334. There was seen at Mecklin fifteen Pair of Dice … in the Womb of a Cherry-Stone.

1722.  Swift, Stella’s Birthday, 68. As you raise it [sc. the bottle] from its Tomb, It drags behind a spacious Womb.

1797.  J. Curr, Coal Viewer, 45. Inclosing it [sc. the boiler] with a circular wall 10 inches thick, as high as the womb of the boiler.

1827.  Keble, Chr. Y., Palm Sunday, iii. Stones in earth’s dark womb that rest.

1857.  B. Taylor, Northern Trav., xxx. (1858), 315. You can … watch, through the vortex of whirling spray in its tortured womb, the starry coruscations which radiate from the bottom of the fall. Ibid. (1863), Poems, Poet’s Jrnl., 2nd Eve in Winter. Wait in the womb of the snow.

1887.  Ian Hamilton, Ballad of Hádji, 14.

  4.  fig. (from 2) A place or medium of conception and development; a place or point of origin and growth; sometimes spec., as † the matrix of metals, etc.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 51. This England, This Nurse, this teeming wombe of Royall Kings. Ibid., ii. 10. Some vnborne sorrow, ripe in fortunes wombe. Ibid. (1604), Oth., I. iii. 377. There are many Euents in the Wombe of Time, which wilbe deliuered.

1622.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Shilling, C 6 b. Siluer … from the wombe of vaust America.

1631.  Widdowes, Nat. Philos., 15. Elements are simple essences … and are the wombs of mixed things.

1665.  J. Spencer, Vulg. Proph., 8. There is not a more fruitful womb of seditions and confusions in States than the Opinion of such predictions is.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 673. Undoubted sign That in his womb was hid metallic Ore, The work of Sulphur.

a. 1708.  Beveridge, Thes. Theol. (1711), III. 29. The empty Womb of Nothing delivered itself of that Lump and confused Chaos, which … God … digested into that … Order we now see it in.

1757.  [Burke], Europ. Settlem. Amer., VII. xxix. II. 282. The cold womb of the earth is incapable of any better production than some miserable shrubs.

1776.  J. Lee, Introd. Bot., Explan. Terms 396. Pericarpium, the Womb of the Plant big with Seeds, which it emits when mature.

1810.  Coleridge, Friend, No. 22, ¶ 8. The various unforeseen Events that are ripening in the womb of the Future.

1866.  Veness, El Dorado, ix. 95. The fulfilment of her [England’s] destiny is in the womb of time.

  5.  attrib. and Comb., as womb part, passage, -pipe, side; womb-enclosed, -lodged adjs.; † womb ache, belly-ache, stomach-ache; † womb brother, a uterine brother; † womb-cake PLACENTA 1; † wombȝate [GATE sb.¹], = VULVA 1; womb-grain [trans. G. mutterkorn], ergot of rye (Dunglison, Med. Lex., 1848); † womb-infant, an unborn child; † womb-joy, gratification of the appetite, luxurious fare, belly-cheer; † womb-liver = womb-cake; † womb-pancake = womb-cake; † womb-rope, a belly-band of rope; womb-stone, a calcified fibroid tumor of the womb (Billings, Med. Dict., 1890); womb-syringe, a uterine syringe; † womb syrup (see quot.); † womb-tack [cf. TACK sb.¹, v.¹] = WOMB-TIE; † womb-trumpet [cf. G. muttertrompete], a Fallopian tube, oviduct.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xlviii. (1495), f iij b/1. Gete … swagyth *wombe ache.

1647.  Trapp, Comm. 2 Thess. ii. 1. Brethren, *womb brethren, as near in nature as is possible.

a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies, Hartfordshire (1662), II. 19. Son to Queen Katherine by Owen Theodor, her second husband, womb-brother to King Henry the Sixth.

1668.  Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat. Introd. The Navil-vein, receiving blood out of the *Womb-cake.

1743.  R. Poole, Journ. France, etc. (1744), I. 132. The Placenta or Womb Cake.

a. 1593.  Marlowe, Ovid’s Elegies, II. xiv. 8. Thy *wombe-inclosed off-spring.

1379.  Gloucester Cath. MS., 19 Press No. 1. Tentigo ys ycalled paries vulue Anglice the *Wombeȝates wall Or elles lingula vulue Anglice the Wombeȝates tunge.

1611.  Cotgr., Vraque, the pipe or passage whereby a *wombe-infants vrine is carried from it.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 68. Prelatis … sillen … trewe prechynge for … worldli lordschipe, & *wombe ioie and idelnesse.

1388.  Songs & Poems on Costume (Percy Soc.), 45. Unthrifte and wombe-joye, steriles et luxuriosi.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. vi. (Tollem. MS.). [Children] biþinkeþ only in wombe ioye, and knoweþ not þe mesure of here owen wombe.

1668.  Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. xxxvi. 80. That same round mass is called Placenta Uteri, the Womb-pancake…; also the *Womb liver.

1684.  trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., II. 2. On the seventh day she … voided the placenta (or womb liver).

1611.  Cotgr., s.v. Agnetiere, A *wombe-lodged infant.

1668.  *Womb-pancake [see womb-liver].

1598.  Florio, Vulva,… the *wombe part or *womb passage.

1860.  Mayne, Expos. Lex., Womb-Passage,… common term for the Vagina.

1611.  Cotgr., Vulve, the *wombe-pipe, or priuie passage.

c. 1325.  Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 168. Ke porte à dos une dossere [gloss rige-leyther], E au ventre une venter [gloss a *wombe-rop].

c. 1340.  Nominale (Skeat), 882. Sele coler et ventrere, Sadul hamborwe and womberope.

c. 1391.  Chaucer, Astrol., II. § 29. The lyne Meridional on the *wombe-side.

c. 1450.  Two Cookery-bks., 101. Ley the pike in A charger, the wombe side vpward.

1694.  Salmon, Bate’s Dispens. (1713), 5/1. This Water is to be injected into … the Womb with a *Womb-Syringe. Ibid., 609/1. Syrupus Uterinus, i.e. Carannæ, The *Womb Syrup, or Syrup of Gum Caranna.

1729.  P. Walkden, Diary (1866), 56. Henry Charnley viewed the horse, with packsaddle and *woontak, at £2 10s.

1703.  Etmullerus Abridg’d, 596. The Egg thus influenc’d, falls off into one of the *Womb-Trumpets.