bosom
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbʊz(ə)m/
ipa: /ˈbʌz(ə)m/
rhymes: -ʊzəm
rhymes: -ʌzəm
Forms: form: bosoms
form: bosome
Etymology: From Middle English bosom, bosum, from Old English bōsm, from Proto-West Germanic *bōsm, from Proto-Germanic *bōsmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewH- (“to swell, bend, curve”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bossem, Bousem (“bosom”), West Frisian boezem (“bosom”), Dutch boezem (“bosom”), German Busen (“bosom”). Related also to Albanian buzë (“lip”), Greek βυζί (vyzí, “breast”), Romanian buză (“lip”), Irish bus (“lip”), and Latin bucca (“cheek”).
Senses: examples: text: Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.[…]She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
topics: anatomy
medicine
sciences
glosses: The breast or chest of a human (or sometimes of another animal).
examples: text: my poor dear duke[…], in consequence of the excitement created in his august bosom by her frantic violence and grief, had a fit in which I very nigh lost him.
ref: 1844 January–December, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1856, →OCLC:
text: His uncle, a Cardinal, engages a Spanish youth of Moorish descent called Diego, an expert singer and player on the virginal,[…]to cleanse his bosom of the perilous stuff, and cure him by the spell of his music.
ref: 1932, Maurice Baring, chapter 16, in Friday's Business:
glosses: The seat of one's inner thoughts, feelings, etc.; one's secret feelings; desire.
examples: text: … Mr Toodle … was refreshing himself with tea in the bosom of his family.
ref: 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:
text: there might be seen in districts far away among the lanes, or deep in the bosom of the hills, certain pallid undersized men, who, by the side of the brawny country-folk, looked like the remnants of a disinherited race.
ref: 1861, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, part I, page 1:
glosses: The protected interior or inner part of something; the area enclosed as by an embrace.
examples: text: And he put his hand into his boſome: and when hee tooke it out, behold, his hand was leprous as ſnowe.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 4:6:
text: She was always in a fearful hurry, and the lower the bosom was cut the more it was to be gathered she was wanted elsewhere.
ref: 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew:
glosses: The part of a dress etc. covering the chest; a neckline.
examples: text: I dont [sic] know that her bosoms were fuller than usual.
ref: 1833, E.K. Avery, B.F. Hallet, Trial of Rev. Mr. Avery, Boston, page 140:
text: The prevailing look at Aintree was of a well-upholstered woman wearing an outfit about three sizes too small for her; trouser suits so tight you could not only tell if the lady had a coin in her pocket but see if it was heads or tails, and skimpy tops proclaiming proudly that bosoms are back—and this time it's personal.
ref: 2003 April 7, Martin Kelner, The Guardian:
text: The baby was crammed against one of her bosoms. He was meant to be sucking milk out of it. The other bosom was hanging down, with a funny long red blob on the end.
ref: 2009, Emma Smith, The Great Western Beach, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 241:
glosses: A breast, one of a woman's breasts
examples: text: I observed, indeed, that the present war had filled the church with many of these uninhabited monuments, which had been erected to the memory of persons whose bodies were perhaps buried in the plains of Blenheim, or in the bosom of the ocean.
ref: 1711, Joseph Addison, The Spectator, number 26:
text: The appointed place was on the edge of a deep, rocky ravine, down in whose dark bosom brawled and foamed a little mountain torrent.
ref: 1864, George MacDonald, The Old Nurse's Story:
glosses: Any thing or place resembling the breast; a supporting surface; an inner recess; the interior.
examples: text: The bosom of the mill-stone is a central depression, and the staff is adjustable to test the symmetry of the concavity.
ref: 1884, Edward Henry Knight, Knight's New Mechanical Dictionary, page 123:
glosses: A depression round the eye of a millstone.
Synonyms: sense: a woman's breasts
word: breasts
Derived terms: Abraham's bosom
bird in the bosom
book-bosomed
bosom buddy
bosom friend
bosomless
bosomy
cherish a snake in one's bosom
disbosom
full-bosomed
in Abraham's bosom
monobosom
nourish a viper in one's bosom
take to one's bosom
unbosom