still-bornadj.n.

1607 R. C. tr. H. Estienne World of Wonders 348 Restoring children to life, which were stil borne.

1615 Bp. J. Hall Farewell Serm. in Recoll. Treat. 678 If a childe were heard cry, it is a lawfull proofe of his liuing: else if hee be dead, we say he is still-borne.

1622–3 in H. J. F. Swayne Churchwardens' Accts. Sarum (1896) 176 iiij still borne Children 4 d.

1773 Gentleman's Mag. 43 118 It is of importance that the still-born children, and those who die before baptism, should also be registered.

1855 Poultry Chron. 2 436 I have often revived apparently still-born ducklings with whisky and water.

1896 W. A. N. Dorland Man. Obstetr. ii. vi. 706 It is a very common occurrence for a child to be born with the respiratory functions in abeyance: such a child is said to be asphyxiated. If efforts at resuscitation prove ineffectual, it is said to have been stillborn.

1899 H. D. Chapin in C. Jewett Practice of Obstetrics xxviii. 617 Fœtal death must be distinguished from asphyxia... In the latter the heart is pulsating, reflexes are present, and there may be feeble attempts at respiration... The distinction between a dead born and a still born infant can usually be made by the rapid fall of rectal temperature in the former.

1911 Act 1 & 2 George V c. 6 § 4 If any person..falsely pretends that any child born alive was still-born..he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.

1936 O'D. Browne Man. Pract. Obstetr. xix. 170 Technically, if an infant is born alive but never breathes, it is said to be stillborn; if the heart has ceased to beat after birth, deadborn.

1953 Act 1 & 2 Eliz. II c. 20 §41 ‘Still-born child’ means a child which has issued forth from its mother after the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy and which did not at any time after being completely expelled from its mother breathe or show any other signs of life, and the expression ‘still-birth’ shall be construed accordingly.

1955 W. P. D. Logan in Holland & Bourne Brit. Obstetr. & Gynæcol. Practice: Obstetrics xxxix. 1140 In certain countries children born alive but dying within a stipulated number of days are registered as stillborn.

1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 i. iii. 64 Grant that our hopes (yet likely of faire birth) Should be stil-borne . View more context for this quotation

1648 R. Herrick Hesperides sig. I4 Winds have their time to rage; but when they cease, The leavie-trees nod in a still-born peace.

1679 J. Dryden Troilus & Cressida i. ii. 4 I have with mighty anguish of my Soul Just at the Birth stifled this still-born-sigh.

1709 Tatler No. 110. ⁋7 Authors in Prose and Verse. Those of them who had produced any still-born Work.

1827 H. Neele Lit. Remains (1829) 22 It is a very common error to suppose that it [‘Paradise Lost’] fell almost still-born from the press.

1830 F. Marryat King's Own II. xv. 231 Those still-born quotations of our messmate, Price, are most tryingly annoying.

1858 W. Greener Gunnery in 1858 Pref. p. iii The numerous patents taken out during the last few years, most of which have fallen still-born.

1894 J. C. Jeaffreson Bk. Recoll. I. viii. 135 [His] works one and all fell still-born from the press.

1977 Lancet 30 July 257/1 She gave birth to a pair of male twins, one of which was a stillborn with no malformations. The other boy is normal and healthy.

1913 J. London Let. 30 Jan. (1966) 369 For goodness sake, don't let's have a still-born of it.