with child
prep_phraseEtymology Replaced the earlier Middle English mid childe. Compare Danish and Swedish med barn.
1
Euphemistic Pregnant.
- I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
- [N]othing vvas more frightful to me than his Careſſes, and the Apprehenſions of being vvith Child again by him, vvas ready to throvv me into Fits; […]1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page 118:
2 more examples
- Worf: I was not aware you had a son. Lursa: I do not. But I am with child.1994, Mark Kalbfeld, René Echevarria, “Firstborn”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 7, episode 21, Michael Dorn and Barbara March (actors):
- I should have had two children, but I find myself with only one. Yet he spends his time with other women who are already with child.1999, Rebecca Hourwich Reyher, Zulu Woman:
- Related terms
- in kid, with young