limb
nounEtymology
From Middle English lyme, lim, from Old English lim (“limb, branch”), from Proto-West Germanic *limu, from Proto-Germanic *limuz (“branch, limb”). Cognate with Old Norse limr (“limb”). The spelling with the silent unetymological -b first arose in the late 1500s. Compare crumb.
Definitions
A major appendage of human or animal, used for locomotion (such as an arm, leg or wing).
- UUhoſe hands are made to gripe a warlike Lance— Their ſhoulders broad, for complet armour fit, Their lims more large and of a bigger ſize Than all the brats yſprong from Typhons loins:
A branch of a tree.
The part of the bow, from the handle to the tip.
›+ 10 more definitionsshow fewer
An elementary piece of the mechanism of a lock.
A thing or person regarded as a part or member of, or attachment to, something else.
- That little limb of the devil has cheated the gallows.
Ellipsis of limb of Satan (“a wicked or mischievous child”).
To remove the limbs from (an animal or tree).
- They limbed the felled trees before cutting them into logs.
To supply with limbs.
- Innumerous living creatures , perfect forms , Limb'd and full grown: out of the ground uprose
- Man was not made so large limbed and robust but that he must seek to narrow his world and wall in a space such as fitted him.
To thoroughly defeat an opponent in fisticuffs
- Brian limbed Roger over at the Beahive last night.
The apparent visual edge of a celestial body.
- the solar limb
- At 4h 57m 9s by my chronometer, (see Schedule B,) I observed with my telescope a small black speck on the preceding limb of the sun's disk, at the precise point to which I had been for some minutes directing my attention.
- Chandrasekhar (1946a, b) predicted that the limb of a star will be polarized, because photons scattered at the limb and toward the observer experience a scattering angle of Θ ≈ 90°.
The graduated edge of a circle or arc.
The border or upper spreading part of a monopetalous corolla, or of a petal or sepal
The border or upper spreading part of a monopetalous corolla, or of a petal or sepal; blade.
- The corolla limb of the moonvine Calonyction aculeatum is normally undivided.
A surname.
The neighborhood
Derived
belimb, CHILD syndrome, dislimb, forelimb, go out on a limb, hind limb, interlimb, intralimb, life and limb, limb brightening, limb darkening, limb from limb, limb girdle syndrome, limbless, limbline, limb-mammary syndrome, limbmeal, limb of the law, limbward, limby, mooselimb, out on a limb, phantom limb, renal dysplasia-limb defects syndrome, risk life and limb, risk one's life and limb, Roux limb, unlimb, limb-brightened, limb-brightening, limb-darkened, limb-darkening
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at limb. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at limb. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
10 hops · closes at limb
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA