Meanings
- euphemisticPregnant.
Worf: I was not aware you had a son. Lursa: I do not. But I am with child.
1994, Mark Kalbfeld, René Echevarria, “Firstborn”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 7, episode 21, Michael Dorn and Barbara March (actors)3 more examples
I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.
c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii][N]othing vvas more frightful to me than his Careſſes, and the Apprehenſions of being vvith Child again by him, vvas ready to throvv me into Fits; […]
1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page 118I should have had two children, but I find myself with only one. Yet he spends his time with other women who are already with child.
1999, Rebecca Hourwich Reyher, Zulu Woman
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Replaced the earlier Middle English mid childe. Compare Danish and Swedish med barn.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan en estat de bona esperança
- en estat de bona esperançapregnant (euphemistic)
Chinese Mandarin 有了
- 有了 (yǒule)pregnant (euphemistic)
Danish med barn
- med barnpregnant (euphemistic)
Finnish pieniin päin
- pieniin päinpregnant (euphemistic)
German in guter Hoffnung sein, in der Hoffnung sein
- in guter Hoffnung seinpregnant (euphemistic)
- in der Hoffnung seinpregnant (euphemistic)
Irish ag iompar clainne
- ag iompar clainnepregnant (euphemistic)
Malay hamil, berbadan dua
- hamilpregnant (euphemistic)
- berbadan duapregnant (euphemistic)
Swedish med barn (not euphemistic)
- med barn (not euphemistic)pregnant (euphemistic)
Cite this entry
with child. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/with%20child
“with child.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/with%20child. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “with child,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/with%20child.
Source: with child on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.