pregnant

comparative more pregnant · superlative most pregnant · alternative obsolete prægnant · alternative obsolete pregnaunt

1. not comparableCarrying developing offspring within the body.

   I became pregnant in July 2014.

   3 more examples

   I went to the doctor and, guess what, I’m five weeks pregnant!

   Once upon a time, not so long ago, women got pregnant and spent nine months in suspense before finding out if they were having a boy or a girl. But today? That waiting game is completely outdated, even quaint.

   2017 July 13, Bonnie Rochman, “Mothers-To-Be Aren’t Told Enough About Genetic Testing”, in Time, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2020

   It suggests that pregnant women should be called pregnant people, presumably on the basis that just perhaps there may be a pregnant man somewhere.

   2025 February 19, Christian Wolmar, “Mind your language...”, in RAIL, number 1029, page 34

   1. not comparableproscribedsometimesOf a couple: expecting a baby together.

      We are pregnant.

2. comparableMeaningful, having numerous possibilities or implications; full of promise; abounding in ability, resources, etc.

   a pregnant pause

   2 more examples

   wherein the pregnant enemy does much

   c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

   The many tear-jerkers deal with finality, with death and the end of love, with a stoicism pregnant with feeling.

   2019 January 26, Kitty Empire [pseudonym], “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great everyman”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 08 Apr 2019

   Synonyms: meaningful, significant

3. poeticFecund, fertile, prolific (usually of soil, ground, etc.).

   The sunne-beames bright vpon her body playd, / Being through former bathing mollifide, / And pierst into her wombe, where they embayd / With so sweet sence and secret power vnspide, / That in her pregnant flesh they shortly fructifide.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

4. Pervaded by something, usually sth intangible.

   The operations center was pregnant with anxiety.

5. obsoleteAffording entrance; receptive; yielding; willing; open; prompt.

   play at subtill games; faire vertues all; To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant

   c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]

6. obsoleteReady-witted; clever; ingenious.

plural pregnants · alternative obsolete prægnant · alternative obsolete pregnaunt

1. colloquialA pregnant person.

   The Entbundenen, or those already delivered, are separate from those pregnants awaiting their accouchement

   1843, William Robert Wilde, Austria: Its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions

comparative more pregnant · superlative most pregnant · alternative obsolete prægnant · alternative obsolete pregnaunt

1. archaicCompelling; clear, evident.First known use 14th c.

   Peregrine was in a little time a distinguished character, not only for his acuteness of apprehension, but also for that mischievous fertility of fancy, of which we have already given such pregnant examples.

   1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: eating for two, expectant, expecting, fertilized, gravid, knocked up, preggers, up the duff