• (British) IPA: /wuːm/

womb (plural wombs)

1. (anatomy) In female mammals, the organ in which the young are conceived and grow until birth; the uterus. [from 8^thc.]
2. (obsolete) The abdomen or stomach. [8^th-17^thc.]
   • a. 1472, Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book V, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, OCLC 71490786 ↗; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034 ↗:

     And his hede, hym semed,was enamyled with asure, and his shuldyrs shone as the golde, and his wombe was lyke mayles of a merveylous hew […].

3. (obsolete) The stomach of a person or creature. [8^th-18^thc.]
4. (figuratively) A place where something is made or formed. [from 15^thc.]

   • The womb of earth the genial seed receives.

   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 2, chapter 7

     The shadows of the future hours rose dark and menacing from the womb of time [...]

5. Any cavity containing and enveloping anything.

   • The centre spike of gold / Which burns deep in the bluebell's womb.

• (organ in mammals) uterus, matrix (poetic or literary), belly (poetic or literary)

• gambeson

• French: utérus, ventre, (archaic) matrice, sein, entrailles
• German: (specific organ) Gebärmutter; (specialist also) Uterus; (pregnant body as the “seat of life”) Mutterleib, Schoß
• Italian: utero, grembo
• Portuguese: útero, matriz
• Russian: ма́тка
• Spanish: útero, matriz

• French: moule, sein
• Italian: grembo, seno
• Portuguese: útero
• Russian: ло́но
• Spanish: cuna

womb (wombs, present participle wombing; past and past participle wombed)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To enclose in a womb, or as if in a womb; to breed or hold in secret.