birth

noun

1. (uncountable)The process of childbearing; the beginning of life; the emergence of a human baby or other viviparous animal offspring from the mother's body into the environment.
2. (countable)An instance of childbirth.

   “Intersex babies account for roughly one per cent of all births.”

   “In Greece a child was given its name on the seventh or tenth day after birth.”

3. (countable)A beginning or start; a point of origin.

   “the birth of an empire”

4. (uncountable)The circumstances of one's background, ancestry, or upbringing.

   “He was of noble birth, but fortune had not favored him.”

   “without reference to birth, but solely for their qualifications”

   “Lucy […] had no fortune, which, though a minor evil, was an evil; and she had no birth, in the high-life sense of the word, which was a greater evil.”

5. (countable, uncountable)That which is born.

   “That poets are far rarer births than kings.”

   “Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it is able to shift for itself.”

6. (alt-of, obsolete)Obsolete spelling of berth.

   “He vvas a Surgeon, and they called him Doctor; but he vvas not employed in the Sloop as a Surgeon, but vvas going to Berbadoes to get a Birth, as the Sailors call it.”

   “And vvhen he had ſhevvn me their birth (as he called it) I vvas filled vvith aſtoniſhment and horror.—VVe deſcended by divers ladders to a ſpace as dark as a dungeon, vvhich I underſtood vvas immerſed ſeveral feet under vvater, being immediately above the hold: I had no ſooner approached this diſmal gulph, than my noſe vvas ſaluted vvith an intolerable ſtench of putrified cheeſe, and rancid butter, […]”

   “Tho' vve vvere again got near our harbour by three in the afternoon, yet it ſeemed to require a full hour or more, before vve could come to our former place of anchoring, or birth, as the captain called it.”

   “[Y]ou have got a good vvarm birth here; but vve ſhall beat up your quarters. Here, Lucy, Moll, come to the fire, and dry your trumpery.”

   “Passengers their births are clapt in, / Some to grumble, some to spew. / 'Hey day! call you that a cabin? / Why 'tis hardly three feet square; / Not enough to stow Queen Mab in— / Who the deuce can harbour there?'”

adj

1. (not-comparable)A familial relationship established by childbirth.

   “Her birth father left when she was a baby; she was raised by her mother and stepfather.”

verb

1. (transitive)To bear or give birth to (a child).

   “I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!”

   “Kelly: Is it true we have a pod containing a baby krogan down in the cargo hold? Shepard: Not a baby. He's a full-grown super soldier ready for combat. Kelly: Please be careful if you decide to... err... birth him? His personality is completely unknown.”

   “She cites some recent examples from the papers: “I birthed two babies in rapid succession”; Beyoncé “birthed her twins”; while somewhere else in the same paper a woman proudly proclaimed: “I birthed a calf!”. She ends: “My objection to the American usage is that it seems to stress rather crudely the muscular process of bringing forth a baby, whereas the graceful British English term ‘to give birth to’ is much more dignified!””

2. (figuratively, transitive)To produce, give rise to.

   “Biological evolution created a human mind that enabled cultural evolution, which now outpaces and outclasses the force that birthed it.”