watch-birth

plural watch-births

1. obsoleteA midwife.

   1 more example

   This Pattern pleas'd thee ſo, th' haſt fram'd by it, Th' eternall Watch-births of thy ſacred Wit: Thy pithy Book of Proverbs richly-grave, Unto the PORCH may rich relation have: For that it gives us Oeconomike Lawes, Rules Politike, and Private civill Sawes; And for (the moſt) thoſe Leſſons generall At Humane matters ayme the moſt of all.

   1641 [1578–84], “The Magnificence”, in Sylvester, Joshua, transl., Du Bartas His Diuine Weekes and Workes, translation of Semaines by Du Bartas, Guillaume de Salluste, page 215