Dictionary

watch-birth en · NOUN

Etymology

From watch + birth.

Meanings

1. (obsolete) A midwife.
   • This Pattern pleas'd thee ſo, th' haſt fram'd by it, Th' eternall Watch-births of thy ſacred Wit: Thy pithy Book of Proverbs richly-grave, Unto the PORCH may rich relation have: For that it gives us Oeconomike Lawes, Rules Politike, and Private civill Sawes; And for (the moſt) thoſe Leſſons generall At Humane matters ayme the moſt of all. 1641 [1578–84], “The Magnificence”, in Sylvester, Joshua, transl., Du Bartas His Diuine Weekes and Workes, translation of Semaines by Du Bartas, Guillaume de Salluste, page 215:

Forms