birth pangs
1
5.2
- noun
- /bɜrθ pæŋz/
:
dolores de parto
- The doctor explained that the birth pangs signified the labor process was starting.
I mean, imagine the birth pangs of this, this birth that's to come, evils trying to wipe out the Jewish people.
- I mean, imagine the birth pangs of this, this birth that's to come, evils trying to wipe out the Jewish people.
Examples
-
As the birth pangs intensified, she focused on breathing through the contractions.
-
When she felt her first birth pangs, she knew it was time to go to the hospital.
-
Late in the evening, Garliad's birth pangs began.
Fiction book (2001) -
Birth pangs start out easy and far apart, then keep getting progressively stronger and closer together.
Blog text (12) -
Birth pangs are painful, intensely so.
Blog text (14)
Synonyms
1
3.6
Pain a woman feels during childbirth when the womb tightens
1
3.4
Strong pain in the stomach and lower back when a woman gives birth
1
3.6
A strong tightening of the womb muscles that helps push a baby out during labor
Antonyms
How Painful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'sharp pains during childbirth' is directly and compositionally built from 'birth' (the event of delivering a baby) and 'pangs' (quick, sharp pains), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer the phrase. This is a transparent, cross-linguistically common construction (compare 'labor pains'), making it accessible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The phrase birth pangs comes from the literal pains of birth. A pang is a sudden, sharp pain, so birth pangs means 'the painful contractions during childbirth'.