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Free by birth; hence, befitting a freeman or gentleman; refined; noble; independent; free; not servile or mean; as, a liberal ancestry; a liberal spirit; liberal arts or studies. " Liberal education." Macaulay. " A liberal tongue." Shak.

The state of being which begins with generation, birth, or germination, and ends with death; also, the time during which this state continues; that state of an animal or plant in which all or any of its organs are capable of performing all or any of their functions; -- used of all animal and vegetable organisms.…

To give birth to; to bear; -- said of brutes, esp. those which produce more than one at a birth, and also of human beings, in abhorrence or contempt. We might conceive that dogs were created blind, because we observe they were littered so with us. Sir T. Browne. The son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp hagbor…

Imparting power; having motion; as, the live spindle of a lathe. Live birth, the condition of being born in such a state that acts of life are manifested after the extrusion of the whole body. Dunglison. -- Live box, a cell for holding living objects under microscopical examination. P. H. Gosse. -- Live feathers, fea…

The discharge from the womb and vagina which follows childbirth.

The state attending, and consequent to, childbirth; confinement.

Serving to assist childbirth. Cudworth.

The art of giving birth (i. e., clearness and conviction) to ideas, which are conceived as struggling for birth. Payne.

oung born while very immature. The female generally carries the young for some time after birth in an external pouch, or marsupium. Called also Marsupiata.

A woman who assists other women in childbirth; a female practitioner of the obstetric art.

The art or practice of assisting women in childbirth; obstetrics.

middle of the twelfth to the middle of the fourteenth century. They were chiefly of noble birth, and made love and beauty the subjects of their verses.

The act of bringing forth before the time; premature birth.

My lord; -- a title in France of a person of high birth or rank; as, Monseigneur the Prince, or Monseigneur the Archibishop. It was given, specifically, to the dauphin, before the Revolution of

monster; deviating greatly from the natural form or character; abnormal; as, a monstrous birth. Locke. He, therefore, that refuses to do good to them whom he is bound to love ... is unnatural and monstrous in his affections. Jer. Taylor.

nurse who serves for a month or some short time, esp. one which attends women after childbirth.

That which has produced or nurtured anything; source of birth or origin; generatrix. Alas! poor country! ... it can not Be called our mother, but our grave. Shak. I behold ... the solitary majesty of Crete, mother of a religion, it is said, that lived two thousand years. Landor.

Producing many, or more than one, at a birth.

A spot or mark on the skin of children when born; a birthmark; -- usually applied to vascular tumors, i. e., those consisting mainly of blood vessels, as dilated arteries, veins, or capillaries.

State of being nascent; birth; beginning; origin.