👶 To have a baby 💡 To create

to give birth

252 1.4

To have a baby or young animal from your body

phrasal verb
/ɡɪv bɜrθ/

: dar a luz

My friend Melanie gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby boy.
give birth to a child
give birth to twins
give birth to a daughter

And then she had to give birth to a dead baby, right.

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Examples

The mortal woman has just given birth, and she'll sleep for a while now.

Fiction book (1993)
His mother gave birth to another baby boy.

Twins (1988)
I actually gave birth right here to our third child.
My wife gave birth to our second child.

Theo Von
You have given birth to two children.

A Man Called Otto (2022)
For those of us who have given birth, the experience starts simply enough.

Academic text (1995)
A year ago, my sister Jane gave birth to her son Sam.
Nevertheless, life went on: in 1967, Jane had given birth to a son, Robert.

Academic text (1991)
Dr. Bonham, I estimate she gave birth no more than a few hours before the attack.

Fiction book (1995)
My wife gave birth to our second child last Friday.

Synonyms

to bear

vsto give birth

∞ 6.2

To give birth to a child or produce fruit

is specific to delivering a baby or young animal rather than producing fruit

to have

vsto give birth

∞ 1.7

To give birth to a baby or young animal

is a neutral term for delivering a baby or young animal in general

to drop

vsto give birth

38 8.5

To give birth to a young animal like a calf or lamb

is a neutral overall term for producing a baby or young animal

to birth

vsto give birth

26 2.3

To cause a baby or young animal to be born

is focused on the act of delivering a young animal or child

to litter

vsto give birth

5 7.5

To give birth to a group of baby animals at once

is more general and applies regardless of how many young are born

to bring forth

vsto give birth

Literature

5 8.1

To give birth to a child or young animal

is the everyday, plain expression for delivering a child or young animal

calving

vsto give birth

3 6.1

A cow or similar animal giving birth to a calf

is general and applies to all animals or humans producing young

to lamb

vsto give birth

1 7.0

To give birth to a young sheep

is general for producing young animals, not limited to sheep

to kitten

vsto give birth

1 7.0

To give birth to baby cats

is broader, applying to producing young animals of any species

to lambing

vsto give birth

3.9

To give birth to lambs

covers the same result but is not limited to a sheep's process

to pupping

vsto give birth

Specialized

7.2

To give birth to puppies or young animals like seals

is the general term for producing young, not tied to pup bearing species

Antonyms

to abort

Specialized

47 7.1

To end a pregnancy by a medical procedure

to miscarry

Specialized

18 6.8

To lose a pregnancy before the baby can live outside the mother's body

How Productive

to spawn

68 5.5

to yield

183 3.6

to bear

∞ 6.2

to give birth

252 1.4

Surface Forms

give birth infinitive

giving birth present participle

gives birth third person singular

gave birth past

given birth past participle

Morphology

give + birth

The basic meaning (‘to deliver offspring’) is directly derived from combining 'give' (produce/supply) with 'birth' (bring into the world), so a learner who knows both words will readily infer the literal sense. The extended sense (‘to cause an idea/movement to come into existence’) is a straightforward metaphorical extension of that literal meaning and is commonly expressed across languages, so it is also likely to be understandable from the constituents and context.

Etymology

Give birth comes from the simple image of a mother or animal bringing a baby into the world: she gives new life at the birth. That's why it means 'to produce a baby' today.