limb
//lɪm//
Forms
- Plural
- limbs
- present (v1)
- limb
- past (v2)
- limbed
- past participle (v3)
- limbed
- present participle
- limbing
- 3rd person singular
- limbs
Definitions
1.A major appendage of human or animal, used for locomotion (such as an arm, leg or wing).
2.A branch of a tree.
3.The part of the bow, from the handle to the tip.
4.An elementary piece of the mechanism of a lock.
1.To thoroughly defeat an opponent in fisticuffs
- Brian limbed Roger over at the Beahive last night.
2.To remove the limbs from (an animal or tree).
- They limbed the felled trees before cutting them into logs.
3.To supply with limbs.
- 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.
Frequency
Overall
Rare· #4266
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Rare
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
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.