with child
26
6.0
- idiom
- Archaic
:
encinta
- Brother Godwin, I am with child.
Once he sat down and understood the the experience of like, wife wants to be with child because they need support.
- Once he sat down and understood the the experience of like, wife wants to be with child because they need support.
- He then told me his seed would not fill me with child, but with devils, right?
Examples
-
Although I had abandoned her when she was with child, she bore me no grudge.
Fiction book (1993) -
And being with child, she cried travailing in birth and was in pain to be delivered.
Academic text (2005) -
Your Grace, the Queen is with child.
-
"We're hoping that Emma will soon be with child, and I have to think about becoming a father."
Fiction book (1990) -
She is with child already.
-
We'd come to Chicago because Michelle was with child.
-
It has come to my attention that my lovely, devoted wife is with child.
-
Sara, heavy with child, felt as though the last bridge connecting her with herself had been cut.
Fiction book (1993) -
The young woman who was with child grimaced as she lowered herself onto a boulder.
Fiction book (1995) -
Your Grace, the Queen is with child.
Synonyms
192
1.1
Pregnant and close to giving birth
12
3.8
A woman who will have a baby soon
1
9.3
Carrying eggs or young inside the body, usually late in pregnancy
1
9.9
A woman who is near the time to have a baby
A woman who is pregnant and close to giving birth
Antonyms
How Pregnant
Surface Forms
Morphology
Although the phrase literally combines 'with' + 'child' (which could be read as 'having/being accompanied by a child'), that literal reading does not clearly signal pregnancy to a B1 learner and can easily be misinterpreted as 'accompanied by a child' or 'already having a child.' The pregnancy sense is somewhat inferable from 'having a child' but is idiomatic/old-fashioned in modern English and varies across languages, so the relation is partial rather than fully transparent.
Etymology
The phrase with child comes from the simple, literal image of a woman carrying a baby inside her. She is with a child, so the phrase means 'pregnant' or 'expecting a baby'.