baby definition - Dictionary

MSN homeMailMy MSN

encartagreeting cards

encarta®

Dictionary

Thesaurus

Translations

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Also available:

World English Dictionary
Dictionnaire Français

baby

ba·by [ báybee ]

noun (plural ba·bies)

Definition:

1. very young child: a very young child who is not yet able to walk or talk

2. unborn child: a child who is still in the womb

3. childish person: somebody regarded as childish or overly dependent

told him not to be such a baby

4. youngest member: the youngest member of a family or group

the baby of the team

5. immature animal: a very young animal

6. term of endearment: an affectionate term of endearment, especially for a woman ( slang ) ( sometimes considered offensive )

7. object of affection or pride: the object of somebody's affection, pride, or admiration ( slang )

That baby is ten years old and still like new.

adjective

Definition:

smaller and younger: describes vegetables that are smaller and younger than usual

baby carrots

transitive verb (past and past participle ba·bied, present participle ba·by·ing, 3rd person present singular ba·bies)

Definition:

treat somebody with great care: to show a great or inordinate amount of care to something or somebody

[14th century. Pet form of babe]

ba·by·hood noun

throw out the baby with the bathwater to reject something in its entirety without discriminating between good and bad parts

Word History


	In Old English, the term for what we would now call a baby was child, and it seems only to have been from about the 11th century that child began to extend its range to the slightly more mature age that it now covers. Then when the word baby came into the language in the 14th century, it was also used in this developed sense of "child," and only gradually came to refer to infants not yet capable of speech or walking.