Limb

//lɪm// name, noun, verb

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 1
    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:"

  2. 2
    The apparent visual edge of a celestial body.

    "the solar limb"

  3. 3
    any projection that is thought to resemble a human arm wordnet
  4. 4
    A branch of a tree.
  5. 5
    The graduated edge of a circle or arc.
Show 10 more definitions
  1. 6
    the graduated arc that is attached to an instrument for measuring angles wordnet
  2. 7
    The part of the bow, from the handle to the tip.
  3. 8
    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."

  4. 9
    either of the two halves of a bow from handle to tip wordnet
  5. 10
    An elementary piece of the mechanism of a lock.
  6. 11
    one of the jointed appendages of an animal used for locomotion or grasping: arm, leg, wing, flipper wordnet
  7. 12
    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."

  8. 13
    (astronomy) the circumferential edge of the apparent disc of the sun or the moon or a planet wordnet
  9. 14
    Ellipsis of limb of Satan (“a wicked or mischievous child”). abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
  10. 15
    any of the main branches arising from the trunk or a bough of a tree wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To remove the limbs from (an animal or tree). transitive

    "They limbed the felled trees before cutting them into logs."

  2. 2
    To supply with limbs. transitive

    "Innumerous living creatures , perfect forms , Limb'd and full grown: out of the ground uprose"

  3. 3
    To thoroughly defeat an opponent in fisticuffs transitive

    "Brian limbed Roger over at the Beahive last night."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

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.

Etymology 3

From Latin limbus (“border”).

Etymology 4

Variant of Lum.

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