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Glite Dictionary
🤰 First fetal movement ⚡ Becoming faster 🌱 Beginning of life
quickening

quickening

1 9.6
The first time a woman feels the baby move inside her
  • noun
  • /ˈkwɪkənɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : movimiento fetal
  • Now, to be fair, at the time of the founding, they typically did not consider the unborn a person until after the quickening, when it was presumed we became souled.
  • feel the quickening

Examples

  • Abortion before quickening was not a crime, and even abortion after quickening was not held to be murder.

    Blog text (14)

  • She had at first felt a rising, a quickening in her; and then abruptly remembered the baby that was responsible for her newly rounded figure, her plumped flesh.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Does anyone know if the Fathers were talking about abortion after the time of quickening, rather than conception?

    Blog text (30)

  • In the eighteenth century, Coke's description "quick with child" (the point at which the child is first able to move, then considered to be the beginning of existence) was equated with "quickening" (the point at which the mother first feels fetal movement).

    Academic text (2016)

  • During her second trimester, Claire was excited to experience the first quickening of her baby.

  • Many expectant mothers wait eagerly for the quickening, which usually occurs around the 16th week of pregnancy.

  • The quickening marks a significant moment in pregnancy, as the mother starts feeling her baby move.

Synonyms

fetal movement
vsquickening
  • US
1 3.9

A baby that moves inside the mother's womb during pregnancy

is the single first moment the mother feels that motion

Antonyms

stillness
38 3.5

A time of complete quiet and no movement that feels calm

inactivity
12 3.5

A period of time with no movement or action

Surface Forms

quickening singular
quickening plural

Morphology

quickening = quicken (opaque) = quick + en + ing

The core meaning behind 'quicken' in this sense is 'to come to life' based on an archaic sense of 'quick' = 'alive', which most learners know as 'fast', so the relation is not derivable for average learners.

Etymology

Quickening comes from the old English word quick which meant 'alive' and from quicken meaning 'to make alive'. So the first quickening in pregnancy is the first time a mother feels the baby move, a clear sign that the baby is alive.