Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A place where something is generated.
  • noun An encompassing, protective hollow or space.
  • noun Obsolete The belly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To inclose; contain; breed in secret.
  • noun The belly; the stomach.
  • noun The uterus; the hollow dilated musculo-membranous part of the female passages, between the vagina and the Fallopian tubes, in which the ovum is received, detained, and nourished during gestation, or the period intervening between fecundation and parturition: applied chielly to this organ of the human female and some of the higher or better-known mammalian quadrupeds, the corresponding part of the passages of other animals being commonly called by the technical name uterus. See uterus (with cut), and cut under peritoneum.
  • noun The place where anything is produced.
  • noun Any large or deep cavity that receives or contains anything.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To inclose in a womb, or as in a womb; to breed or hold in secret.
  • noun obsolete The belly; the abdomen.
  • noun (Anat.) The uterus. See Uterus.
  • noun The place where anything is generated or produced.
  • noun Any cavity containing and enveloping anything.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb obsolete To enclose in a womb, or as if in a womb; to breed or hold in secret.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a hollow muscular organ in the pelvic cavity of females; contains the developing fetus

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English wamb.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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  (vapā́, "the skin or membrane lining the intestines or parts of the viscera, the caul or omentum").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Any dark, recessed place of emergence..as a cave or cauldron, especially in a symbolic use as in ritual.

    February 18, 2008

  • A more colloquial alternative to swimming pool.

    July 30, 2008

  • This word has the prettiest vowel sound in "oo". The invisibe "h" behind the "w" and the unpronounced "b". The settling effect when prounced. One of my all time favorite words for he sound, not the connotation.

    October 23, 2008

  • I agree that it's a lovely and complex vowel sound. For me the 'b' isn't completely silent, though very muted, and the invisible 'h' is only just audible.

    October 23, 2008

  • "See uterus (with cut), and cut under peritoneum."

    --from the Century Dictionary definition

    September 18, 2014