| 释义 |
▪ I. womb, n.|wuːm|
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.
c825Vesp. Ps. xliii[i]. 25 Adhesit in terra venter noster, ætfalh in eorðan womb ur. a1000Riddles xxxvii. 3 Ic wiht ᵹeseah on weᵹe feran, seo..hæfde feowere fet under wombe. c1205Lay. 19800 His neb bigon to blakien, his wombe gon to swellen. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 10794 Wan richard þe marschal..toward is fon in þe feld haþ is wombe iwent, Ssold he turne hom is rugh? c1305Judas Isc. 141 in E.E.P. (1862) 111 His wombe to-berste amidde atuo. c1340Nominale (Skeat) 66 Inwyth the wombe of man..Is herte lyuer and longes. 13..Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 144 His wombe & his wast were worthily smale. 1390Gower 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. a1425Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 635/33 Hic uenter, wambe. c1430Two Cookery-bks. 39 Take þe Wombe of A luce, & seþe here wyl. c1440Pallad. on Husb. i. 53 Her wombis [L. venter, aut viscera], sidis, reynys, swelle or ake. 1486Bk. St. Albans e iij b, All thyng with in the wombe saue onli the gall. 1509Barclay Shyp of Folys (1874) I. 12 If he haue a great wombe, and his Cofers ful. 1526R. Whitford Martiloge 100 They were racked,..than were theyr wombes or belyes flayne the skynne of. 1597Shakes. 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. 1632Lithgow Trav. x. 462 The Tormentor..drew violently with his hands, making my Wombe support the force of his feete. 1684J. 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).
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xv. 17 Ne oncnauas ᵹie forðon eᵹhuelc þæt in muð inngaas in womb gaas? a1100Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 159/27 Aluus, rif uel seo inre wamb. c1160Hatton Gosp. Luke xv. 16 Ða ᵹewilnede he his wambe fellen of þam beancoddan þe þa swin æten. a1200Moral Ode 145 in O.E. Hom. I. 169 Ful wombe mei lihtliche speken of hunger & of festen. c1200Vices & Virtues 137 Of here wombe hie makieð here godd. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 37 Þe fule man þe foleȝeð his wombes wil. 13..Cursor M. 536 (Gött.) Manes wambe all licur drinkis. 1340Ayenb. 53 Þanne ssolle we betuene þe porse and þe wombe of þe glotoune habbe a uayr strif. 1362Langl. 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. c1386Chaucer Monk's T. 447 Thanne sholde nat hunger in my wombe crepe. c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 170 Withe ful wombe they preche of abstynence. c1430Two Cookery-bks. 39 Do in þe grete wombe of þe Schepe, þat is, the mawe. 1515Barclay Egloges iv. (1570) C iij b/2 When ye be mery and stuffed is your wombe..Then laude ye songes. 1601Holland Pliny xxvi. viii. II. 248 The wombe..oftentimes in a day calleth unto us for victuals. 1603J. Davies (Heref.) Microcosmos Wks. (Grosart) I. 58/2 If nought from without come in the wombe The Body needes must die. 1756Poor Robin June B 1 b, Who makes a swill tub of his womb, Is but a speaking, prattling tomb.
†c. The bowels. Obs.
c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 186 Se ᵹeþiᵹeda mete hefeᵹaþ þone maᵹan & he þone sammeltan þurh ða wambe utsent. c1400Mandeville (1919) xviii. 101 Men putten it in medicynes..to make the Wombe lax. c1400tr. Secr. Secr., Gov. Lordsh. 70 A potage nesshe and laxatyue to þe wombe. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 51 If þat he be feble..voide þe fecis of his wombe bi clisterie. c1430Pilgr. Lyf Manhode ii. xxxiv. (1869) 88 Þou berest him to priuee chambres..to voide his wombe. 1544T. Phaer 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.
1434Will of Ruddok (Somerset Ho.) Calabir wombis. 1483in Antiq. Rep. (1807) I. 32 A greete bordure and purfile of ermyne wombes. 1531Dunmow Churchw. MS. lf. 11 b, Item, for a payer of wombs tande.., vi d ob. 1551–2Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI c. 15 §3 Everie Girdler..maye..sell..Neckes, Wombes and Shreddes of tanned Leather. 1592Greene Upst. Courtier Wks. (Grosart) XI. 269 Whereas you should only put the backs of skinnes into facing, you taw the wombs. 1612Sc. 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’.
c825Vesp. Hymns vi. 31 Expavit venter meus, forhtade womb min. 1382Wyclif Ecclus. li. 29 My wombe [later version soule] is disturbid in sechyng it.
(b) tr. L. ventriculus = ventricle 1.
1398Trevisa 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.
c825Vesp. Ps. cxxvi[i]. 3 Fructus ventris, westem wombe. c950Lindisf. Gosp. Luke xxiii. 29 Eadᵹo biðon ða unberendo & ða wombo ðaðe ne acendon. c1200Vices & Virtues 87 Hv mai ðat moder forȝeten ðat child ðe hie bar in hire wombe? c1205Lay. 199 Heuede Lauine þa quene kine⁓bearn on wombe. a1300Cursor M. 3460 Childir tuin Þat lai þer moder wamb wit-in. c1400Beryn 859 A child gan stere in hir vombe. c1440Alphabet of Tales 63 What wommans wambe myght bere so grete a light? a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI 134 They were his bretherne of one wombe descended. 1626Bacon Sylva §94 Birds, that are shaped without the Females Wombe, haue in the Egge..Matter of Nourishment. 1718Prior Solomon iii. 115 Naked from the Womb We yesterday came forth. 1820Shelley Cloud 83 Like a child from the womb. 1842Tennyson Day-Dream 28 Like hints and echoes of the world To spirits folded in the womb.
b. Phr. womb-to-tomb, esp. used attrib. to denote procedures, etc., which span a lifetime. Cf. cradle-to-grave s.v. cradle n. 2.
1964A. Wykes Gambling i. 8 During our womb-to-tomb progress we never stop gambling, for we cannot know the outcome of each of the many decisions we have to make every day. 1967McLuhan & Fiore Medium is Massage 12 Electrical information devices for universal, tyrannical womb-to-tomb surveillance are causing a very serious dilemma between our claim to privacy and the community's need to know. 1968G. Jackson Let. 29 June in Soledad Brother (1971) 163 From the womb to the tomb this plays in our minds. We are not worth more than the amount of capital we can raise. 1979Bookseller 23 June 2830/3 Kane and Abel..is a womb-to-tomb tale.
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.
969in Birch Cart. Sax. III. 532 Þæt swa on east crofte þæt swa ondlong þære heᵹe ræwe þæt on ondoncilles wombe. a1000Riddles iv. 48 [Clouds] feallan lætað sweart sumsendu seaw of bosme, wætan of wombe. Ibid. xxxviii. 1 Ic þa wihte ᵹeseah; womb wæs on hindan þriþum aþrinten. 1382Wyclif Isa. xix. 7 Nakened shal be the flod wombe [alveus rivi]. c1391Chaucer 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. 1471Caxton Recuyell (Sommer) 56, I had moche leuer that the erthe wold opene and swalwe me in to his wombe. 1588Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 239, I may be pluckt into the swallowing wombe, Of this deepe pit, poore Bassianus graue. 1592― Rom. & Jul. v. i. 65 As violently, as hastie powder fier'd Doth hurry from the fatall Canons wombe. 1602Marston Antonio's Rev. iii. v, Yee sootie coursers of the night, Hurrie your chariot into hels black wombe. 1615Chapman Odyss x. 471 The fourth brought water, and made fuel shine In ruddy fires beneath a womb of brass. 1616T. Scot Philomythie I 3 b, And both these rudely enter The strong ships wombe. 1661J. 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. 1697Dryden æneis xii. 1278 What Earth will open her devouring Womb, To rest a weary Goddess in the Tomb? 1715tr. Pancirollus' Mem. Things II. x. 334 There was seen at Mecklin fifteen Pair of Dice..in the Womb of a Cherry-Stone. 1722Swift Stella's Birthday 68 As you raise it [sc. the bottle] from its Tomb, It drags behind a spacious Womb. 1797J. Curr Coal Viewer 45 Inclosing it [sc. the boiler] with a circular wall 10 inches thick, as high as the womb of the boiler. 1827Keble Chr. Y., Palm Sunday iii, Stones in earth's dark womb that rest. 1857B. 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. 1863― Poems, Poet's Jrnl., 2nd Eve in Winter, Wait in the womb of the snow. 1887Ian Hamilton Ballad of Hadji 14 Then through the womb Of night I galloped.
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.
1593Shakes. 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. 1604― Oth. i. iii. 377 There are many Euents in the Wombe of Time, which wilbe deliuered. 1622J. Taylor (Water P.) Shilling C 6 b, Siluer..from the wombe of vaust America. 1631Widdowes Nat. Philos. 15 Elements are simple essences..and are the wombs of mixed things. 1665J. Spencer Vulg. Proph. 8 There is not a more fruitful womb of seditions and confusions in States than the Opinion of such predictions is. 1667Milton P.L. i. 673 Undoubted sign That in his womb was hid metallic Ore, The work of Sulphur. a1708Beveridge 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. 1776J. Lee Introd. Bot. Explan. Terms 396 Pericarpium, the Womb of the Plant big with Seeds, which it emits when mature. 1810Coleridge Friend No. 22 ⁋8 The various unforeseen Events that are ripening in the womb of the Future. 1866Veness El Dorado ix. 95 The fulfilment of her destiny is in the womb of time.
5. attrib. and Comb., as womb-element, womb-fruit, womb-land, womb-life, womb part, womb passage, womb-pipe, womb side; womb-enclosed, womb-fibrilled, womb-like, womb-lodged adjs.; womb-ward adv.; † womb ache, belly-ache, stomach-ache; † womb brother, a uterine brother; † womb-cake = placenta 1; † wombȝate [gate n.1], = vulva 1; womb-grain [tr. 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 tumour of the womb (Billings Med. Dict. 1890); womb-syringe, a uterine syringe; † womb syrup (see quot.); † womb-tack [cf. tack n.1, v.1]= womb-tie; † womb-trumpet [cf. G. muttertrompete], a Fallopian tube, oviduct.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. xlviii. (1495) f iij b/1 Gete..swagyth *wombe ache.
1647Trapp Comm. 2 Thess. ii. 1 Brethren, *womb brethren, as near in nature as is possible. a1661Fuller Worthies, Hartfordshire (1662) ii. 19 Son to Queen Katherine by Owen Theodor, her second husband, womb-brother to King Henry the Sixth.
1668Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. Introd., The Navil-vein, receiving blood out of the *Womb-cake. 1743R. Poole Journ. France etc. (1744) I. 132 The Placenta or Womb Cake.
1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 94 Who lies with the waters of his silent passion, *womb-element?—Fish in the waters.
a1593Marlowe Ovid's Elegies ii. xiv. 8 Thy *wombe-inclosed off-spring.
1923*Womb-fibrilled [see inturned ppl. a.].
1922*Wombfruit [see quickening vbl. n.].
1379Gloucester Cath. MS. 19 Press No. 1 Tentigo ys ycalled paries vulue Anglice the *Wombeȝates wall. Or elles lingula vulue Anglice the Wombeȝates tunge.
1611Cotgr., Vraque, the pipe or passage whereby a *wombe-infants vrine is carried from it.
c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 68 Prelatis..sillen..trewe prechynge for..worldli lordschipe, & *wombe ioie and idelnesse. 1388Songs & Poems on Costume (Percy Soc.) 45 Unthrifte and wombe-joye, steriles et luxuriosi. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vi. vi. (Tollem. MS.) [Children] biþinkeþ only in wombe ioye, and knoweþ not þe mesure of here owen wombe.
1930A. Huxley Vulgarity in Literature iv. 16 Those yearning popular songs which are the national anthems of *Wombland.
1876G. M. Hopkins Wr. Deutschland vii, in Poems (1967) 53 Warm-laid grave of a *womb-life grey.
a1930D. H. Lawrence Last Poems (1932) 308 The shell-like, *womb-like, convoluted shadow. 1981J. Wainwright All on a Summer's Day 24 An Interview Room..is womb-like in its complete isolation.
1668Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. i. xxxvi. 80 That same round mass is called Placenta Uteri, the Womb-pancake..; also the *Womb-liver. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. ii. 2 On the seventh day she..voided the placenta (or womb liver).
1611Cotgr. s.v. Agneliere, A *wombe-lodged infant. 1668*Womb-pancake [see womb-liver].
1598Florio, Vulva,..the *wombe part or *womb passage. 1860Mayne Expos. Lex., Womb-Passage,..common term for the Vagina.
1611Cotgr., Vulve, the *wombe-pipe, or priuie passage.
c1325Gloss. 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]. c1340Nominale (Skeat) 882 Sele coler et ventrere, Sadul hamborwe and womberope.
c1391Chaucer Astrol. ii. §29 The lyne Meridional on the *wombe-side. c1450Two Cookery-bks. 101 Ley the pike in A charger, the wombe side vpward.
1694Salmon 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.
1729P. Walkden Diary (1866) 56 Henry Charnley viewed the horse, with packsaddle and *woontak, at {pstlg}2 10s.
1703Etmullerus Abridged 596 The Egg thus influenc'd, falls off into one of the *Womb-Trumpets.
1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 19 There was a flower that flowered inward, *womb-ward.
▪ II. womb, v.|wuːm|
[f. womb n.]
1. trans. To enclose as in a womb.
1557Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 239 The hidden harme..Wombed within our walles and realme about, As Grekes in Troy were in the Grekish beast. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 501 Not..for all the Sun sees, or The close earth wombes,..will I breake my oath. 1855Singleton Virgil I. 113 In this from out another tree A bud they womb. 1871G. Macdonald Somnium Myst. v. 30 A world that lay Wombed in its sun.
†2. To cause to swell out: = belly v. 1. nonce-use.
1628Feltham Resolves i. [ii.] lxi. 57 Once lanched forth, hee may..find the blast, to wombe out his sailes more fully.
3. pa. pple. Impregnated with. nonce-use.
1786J. Courtenay Poet. Rev. Char. Johnson 16 As womb'd with fire the cloud electrick flies. |