birth
    n 1: the time when something begins (especially life); "they
         divorced after the birth of the child"; "his election
         signaled the birth of a new age" [ant: death, demise,
         dying]
    2: the event of being born; "they celebrated the birth of their
       first child" [syn: birth, nativity, nascency,
       nascence] [ant: death, decease, expiry]
    3: the process of giving birth [syn: parturition, birth,
       giving birth, birthing]
    4: the kinship relation of an offspring to the parents [syn:
       parentage, birth]
    5: a baby born; an offspring; "the overall rate of incidence of
       Down's syndrome is one in every 800 births"
    v 1: cause to be born; "My wife had twins yesterday!" [syn:
         give birth, deliver, bear, birth, have]

Berth \Berth\ (b[~e]rth), n. [From the root of bear to produce,
   like birth nativity. See Birth.] [Also written birth.]
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   1. (Naut.)
      (a) Convenient sea room.
      (b) A room in which a number of the officers or ship's
          company mess and reside.
      (c) The place where a ship lies when she is at anchor, or
          at a wharf.
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   2. An allotted place; an appointment; situation or
      employment. "He has a good berth." --Totten.
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   3. A place in a ship to sleep in; a long box or shelf on the
      side of a cabin or stateroom, or of a railway car, for
      sleeping in.
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   Berth deck, the deck next below the lower gun deck. --Ham.
      Nav. Encyc.

   To give (the land or any object) a wide berth, to keep at
      a distance from it.
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Birth \Birth\ (b[~e]rth), n. [OE. burth, birth, AS. beor[eth],
   gebyrd, fr. beran to bear, bring forth; akin to D. geboorte,
   OHG. burt, giburt, G. geburt, Icel. bur[eth]r, Skr. bhrti
   bearing, supporting; cf. Ir. & Gael. beirthe born, brought
   forth. [root]92. See 1st Bear, and cf. Berth.]
   1. The act or fact of coming into life, or of being born; --
      generally applied to human beings; as, the birth of a son.
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   2. Lineage; extraction; descent; sometimes, high birth; noble
      extraction.
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            Elected without reference to birth, but solely for
            qualifications.                       --Prescott.
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   3. The condition to which a person is born; natural state or
      position; inherited disposition or tendency.
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            A foe by birth to Troy's unhappy name. --Dryden.
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   4. The act of bringing forth; as, she had two children at a
      birth. "At her next birth." --Milton.
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   5. That which is born; that which is produced, whether animal
      or vegetable.
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            Poets are far rarer births than kings. --B. Jonson.
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            Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it
            is able to shift for itself.          --Addison.
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   6. Origin; beginning; as, the birth of an empire.
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   New birth (Theol.), regeneration, or the commencement of a
      religious life.
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   Syn: Parentage; extraction; lineage; race; family.
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Birth \Birth\, n.
   See Berth. [Obs.] --De Foe.
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Birth
   As soon as a child was born it was washed, and rubbed with salt
   (Ezek. 16:4), and then swathed with bandages (Job 38:9; Luke
   2:7, 12). A Hebrew mother remained forty days in seclusion after
   the birth of a son, and after the birth of a daughter double
   that number of days. At the close of that period she entered
   into the tabernacle or temple and offered up a sacrifice of
   purification (Lev. 12:1-8; Luke 2:22). A son was circumcised on
   the eighth day after his birth, being thereby consecrated to God
   (Gen. 17:10-12; comp. Rom. 4:11). Seasons of misfortune are
   likened to the pains of a woman in travail, and seasons of
   prosperity to the joy that succeeds child-birth (Isa. 13:8; Jer.
   4:31; John 16:21, 22). The natural birth is referred to as the
   emblem of the new birth (John 3:3-8; Gal. 6:15; Titus 3:5,
   etc.).
   

BIRTH. The act of being wholly brought into the world. The whole body must 
be detached from that of the mother, in order to make the birth complete. 5 
C. & P. 329; S. C. 24 E. C. L. R. 344 6 C. & P. 349; S. C. 25 E. C. L. R. 
433. 
     2. But if a child be killed with design and maliciously after it has 
wholly come forth from the body of the mother, although still connected with 
her by means of the umbilical cord, it seems that such killing will be 
murder. 9 C. & P. 25 S . C. 38 E. C. L. R. 21; 7 C. & P. 814. Vide articles 
Breath; Dead Born; Gestation; Life; and 1 Beck' s Med. Jur. 478, et seq.; 1 
Chit. Med. Jur. 438; 7 C. & P. 814; 1 Carr. & Marsh. 650; S. C. 41 E. C. L. 
R. 352; 9 C. & P. 25. 
     3. It seems that unless the child be born alive, it is not properly a 
birth, but a carriage. 1 Chit. Pr. 35, note z. But see Russ. & Ry. C. C. 
336. 

BIRTH, n.  The first and direst of all disasters.  As to the nature of
it there appears to be no uniformity.  Castor and Pollux were born
from the egg.  Pallas came out of a skull.  Galatea was once a block
of stone.  Peresilis, who wrote in the tenth century, avers that he
grew up out of the ground where a priest had spilled holy water.  It
is known that Arimaxus was derived from a hole in the earth, made by a
stroke of lightning.  Leucomedon was the son of a cavern in Mount
Aetna, and I have myself seen a man come out of a wine cellar.