babe
(beɪb)
Also 5–7 bab.
[Prob. a contraction of baban; cf. Tom, Will, Gib, Hugh, and similar pet-names. Now superseded in ordinary use by its own diminutive baby (cf. Tommy, Willie, etc.), and retained chiefly as a literary and poetic word. Babe, and not baby, is used in the Bible.]
1. An infant, a young child. Phr. babe in arms.
| 1393 Gower Conf. I. 290 How this babe all bloody cried. c 1460 Townley Myst. 149 Alas, my bab, myn innocent. 1540 R. Hyrde Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) Y v, Blessed of God from his babes age. 1557 N. T. (Genev.) 1 John ii. 1 My babes, these thinges write I vnto you, that ye synne not. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 30 Finger of Birth-strangled Babe [rimes, drab, slab]. 1770 Goldsm. Des. Vill. 381 And kiss'd her thoughtless babes with many a tear. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. i. (1810) 70 Recorded next a Babe of love I trace! 1912 J. N. McIlwraith Diana of Quebec vii. 94 She had brought three little children with her, one a babe in arms. 1967 Woman 23 Dec. 3/1 She can recall being held up to see a sparkly tree as a babe in arms. |
† 2. A doll, puppet; = baby n. 2. Obs.
| 1530 Palsgr. 196/1 Babe that children play with, povppee. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. May 240 Bearing a truss of trifles..As bells, and babes, and glasses in hys packe. 1595 Shakes. John iii. iv. 58, I should forget my sonne Or madly thinke a babe of clowts were he. |
3. a. fig. A childish person; = baby n. 5. babes in Christ: newly-made converts to Christianity. Also, an inexperienced or guileless person; so babes in the wood (with overt or implied reference to the old ballad The Children in the Wood).
| 1526 Tindale 1 Cor. iii. 1 As vnto carnall, even as it were vnto babes in Christ. 1588 A. King Canisius' Catech. 53 Wavering babs caried about with everie wind of doctrin. 1611 Bible Transl. Pref. 1 Hee was no babe, but a great clearke. 1771 Wesley Wks. (1872) VI. 6 Even babes in Christ are in such a sense perfect. 1795 W. B. Stevens Jrnl. 26 Mar. (1965) 245 Wishes himself at home, restrained only by Principle and a Sense of Duty—A tale to tell the Babes in the Wood! 1841 Lytton Night & Morning III. v. i. 98 The uncle of the babes in the wood could hardly have been more startled by the demand! 1866 Mrs. Gaskell Wives & D. I. xi. 131 Molly and her future stepmother wandered about in the gardens..hand in hand, like two babes in the wood. 1908 ‘O. Henry’ Man Higher Up in Wks. (1928) 249 You're both babes-in-the-wood. 1926 H. W. Fowler Mod. Eng. Usage 40/1 In figurative use, babe implies guilelessness, innocence, or ignorance. 1962 J. B. Priestley Margin Released iii. v. 191 A big ambitious novel, in which there was to be far more social criticism than the babes-in-the-woods theme might suggest. |
b. A girl or woman (often as a form of address). slang (chiefly U.S.).
| 1915 Dialect Notes IV. 231 Babe, a pretty girl. ‘She's some babe.’ 1930 C. Wittke Tambo & Bones iv. 143 Kiss your minstrel boy good-bye, babe, 'bye, babe, 'bye, babe. 1932 Amer. Speech VII. 329 Babe, a girl (usually used in direct address). 1952 S. Kauffmann Philanderer (1953) iv. 57 This Mrs. Adair..has such hotsy-totsy cottages... Yesterday this Adair babe has an ad in the paper. |
4. Comb. and attrib.; cf. baby n. B.
| 1647 H. More Song of Soul iii. App. lxxxvi, A young babe-soul from thence to gain. 1826 Scott Woodst. xx, We, the babe-eaters, had too many acquaintances at Brentford. 1855 Tennyson Maud ii. i. 13 He came with the babe-faced lord. 1868 People's Mag. 1 Apr. 213 (title of verses) Babe-wisdom. |