egg
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: ĕg
rhymes: -ɛɡ
homophone: Eigg
ipa: /ɛɡ/
note: Indic
ipa: /(j)ɛɡ/
homophone: yegg
enpr: āg
rhymes: -eɪɡ
note: some Canadian and US accents
ipa: /eɪɡ/
Forms: form: eggs
form: egge
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English eg, egg, egge (“egg of a domestic or wild fowl; egg of a snake”) [and other forms] (originally Northern England and Northeast Midlands), from Old Norse egg (“egg”), from Proto-Germanic *ajją (“egg”) (by Holtzmann’s law), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”), probably from *h₂éwis (“bird”), from *h₂ew- (“to clothe oneself, dress; to be dressed”) (in the sense of an animal clothed in feathers). Doublet of huevo, oeuf, and ovum.
The native English ey [and other forms] (plural eyren) (obsolete), from Old English ǣġ, is also derived from Proto-Germanic *ajją. It survived into at least c. 16th century before being fully displaced by egg.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: The Eſtrich (whoſe fethers are fayrer thẽ yᵉ wynges of the ſparow hauke) whẽ he hath layd his egges vpon the grounde, he bredeth them in the duſt, and forgetteth them: ſo that they might be troden with feete, or broken with ſomme wilde beaſt.
ref: 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Job xxxix:[13–15], folio xi, recto, column 2:
text: [T]hinke him as a Serpents egge, / VVhich hatch'd, vvould as his kinde grovv mischieuous; / And kill him in the ſhell.
ref: 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 114, column 1:
text: An egg properly is that, out of a part vvhereof a living creature is produced, and the reſidue is meat for it, improperly that is an egg out of the vvhole vvhereof, a living creature is bred, as the eggs of Spiders, Ants, Flies.
ref: 1657, Samuel Purchas, “Of the Generation of Bees”, in A Theatre of Politicall Flying-Insects. […], London: […] R. I. for Thomas Parkhurst, […], →OCLC, pages 47–48:
text: [T]here is one claſs of quadrupeds that ſeems entirely left to chance, […] Theſe are the quadrupeds that are brought forth from the egg, ſuch as the lizard, the tortoiſe, and the crocodile. […] [T]he numerous brood of eggs are, vvithout farther ſolicitude, buried in the vvarm ſands of the ſhore, and the heat of the ſun alone is left to bring them to perfection.
ref: 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Quadrupeds in General, Compared to Man”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume II, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, pages 311–312:
text: The egg is, as we have said, a kind of exposed uterus, and place in which the embryo is fashioned: for it performs the office of the uterus and enfolds the chick until the due time of its exclusion arrive, when the creature is born perfect.
ref: 1847, William Harvey, “Anatomical Exercises on the Generation of Animals; to which are Added, Essays on Parturition; on the Membranes, and Fluids of the Uterus; and on Conception. [On Animal Generation. Exercise the Twenty-third: Of the Exclusion of the Chick, or the Birth from the Egg.]”, in Robert Willis, transl., The Works of William Harvey, M.D., London: […] Sydenham Society, →OCLC, page 264:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
examples: text: We made a big omelette with three eggs for breakfast.
text: I should determine the minimal amount of egg required to make good mayonnaise.
raw_tags: countable, uncountable
text: The farmer offered me some fresh eggs, but I told him I was allergic to egg.
text: There after the images and reliques were orderly disposed, the great Priest compassed about with divers pictures according to the fashion of the Ægyptians, did dedicate and consecrate with certaine prayers a fair ship made very cunningly, and purified the same with a torch, an egge, and sulphur; […]
ref: 1566, Apuleius, “The Eleventh Booke”, in William Adlington, transl., The Golden Ass of Apuleius Translated out of Latin […], London: David Nutt […], published 1893, →OCLC, page 239:
text: [T]hey are vp already, and cal for Egges and butter, they vvil avvay preſently.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: I was 5 moneth in France before I saw a boyled or roasted egge.
ref: 1665–1667, John Lauder; Lord Fountainhall, “Journal in France 1665–1667”, in Donald Crawford, editor, Journals of Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall, with His Observations on Public Affairs and Other Memoranda 1665–1676 […] (Publications of the Scottish History Society; XXXVI), Edinburgh: […] University Press by T[homas] and A[rchibald] Constable for the Scottish History Society, published May 1900, →OCLC, page 52:
text: Eggs are perhaps the higheſt, moſt nouriſhing and exalted of all animal Food, and moſt indigeſtible, becauſe no body can take and digeſt the ſame Quantity of them as of other Food.
ref: 1732, John Arbuthnot, “Practical Rules of Diet in the Various Constitutions and Diseases of Human Bodies. Chapter I. Of the Different Qualities and Effects of Alimentary Substances. 4. Anti-acid, or Contrary to Acidity or Sourness.”, in An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments, and the Choice of Them, According to the Different Constitutions of Human Bodies. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[acob] Tonson […], →OCLC, page 255:
text: A round, black, shining face is hers, so glossy as to suggest the idea that she might have washed over with white of eggs, like one of her own tea rusks.
ref: 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “An Evening in Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume I, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC, page 39:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
The edible egg (sense 1.1) of a domestic fowl such as a duck, goose, or, especially, a chicken; (uncountable) the contents of such an egg or eggs used as food.
synonyms: word: ey
word: huevo
word: oeuf
raw_tags: in French cooking
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
A food item shaped to resemble an egg (sense 1.1.1), such as a chocolate egg.
examples: text: In the Fall into the division of labor, [Claude] Lévi-Strauss sees the great hunters trading women to create the exogamous bonds of one hunting band with another. The egg is, but the sperm does. The tiny sperm may be furious in its activity, but its highway to the egg is paved by the alkaline trail set down by the Great Mother.
ref: 1981, William Irwin Thompson, “Hominization”, in The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture (A Lindisfarne Series Book), New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, part 2 (The Transformations of Prehistory), page 80:
text: Although they serve the same function across the plant, animal and fungal kingdoms, sperm and eggs vary wildly in their structure and biochemistry, even among closely related species. […] Many genes that determine sperm and egg structure and biochemistry are rapidly evolving, constantly changing the chemical environment necessary for the sperm to bind to the egg.
ref: 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, New Haven, Conn.: Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2013, abstract, page 210:
topics: biology
cytology
medicine
natural-sciences
sciences
zoology
glosses: Synonym of ovum (“the female gamete of an animal”); an egg cell.
synonyms: word: ovum
extra: (“the female gamete of an animal”); an egg cell
examples: text: His ſtomacke vvas queaſie (for comming there Coacht) / The jogging had caus’d ſome crudities riſe; / To help it he call’d for a Puritan poacht, / That uſed to turne up the egg’s of his eyes.
ref: 1621 August 13 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Ben Jonson, “The Masque of the Gypsies”, in Q. Horatius Flaccus: His Art of Poetry. […], London: […] J[ohn] Okes, for John Benson […], published 1640, →OCLC, page 84:
text: There vvas taken a great Glaſs-bubble, vvith a long neck; (ſuch as Chymiſts are vvont to call a Philoſophical Egg) vvhich being fill'd vvith common VVater till the Liquor reach'd about a ſpan above the bubble, and a piece of Paper being there paſted on, vvas put unſtop'd into the Receiver, […]
ref: 1659 December 30 (date written), Robert Boyle, “[Experiment 20]”, in New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and Its Effects, (Made, for the Most Part, in a New Pneumatical Engine) […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] H[enry] Hall, printer to the University, for Tho[mas] Robinson, published 1660, →OCLC, page 144:
glosses: A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
glosses: A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
A swelling on one's head, usually large or noticeable, resulting from an injury.
synonyms: word: goose egg
topics: architecture
glosses: A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
Chiefly in egg and dart: an ornamental oval moulding alternating in a row with dart or triangular shapes.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
A score of zero; specifically (cricket), a batter's failure to score; a duck egg or duck's egg.
synonyms: word: goose egg
word: love
english: billiards, racquet sports (especially tennis)
translation: billiards, racquet sports (especially tennis)
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
A bomb or mine.
topics: cellular-automata
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
A would-be spark, especially one created by an overweight spaceship and that leads to a pattern's destruction.
examples: text: a bad egg    a good egg    a tough egg    Cheerio, old egg!
text: 'Good egg!' quoth Moorshed, and brought his hand down on the wide shoulders with the smack of a beaver's tail.
ref: 1903, Rudyard Kipling, “‘Their Lawful Occasions’—Part II”, in Traffics and Discoveries, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1904, →OCLC, page 138:
text: Walter. The woman we passed as we came in just now. Is it his wife? / Cokeson. No, no relation. [Restraining what in jollier circumstances would have been a wink] A married person, though. […] James. A real bad egg.
ref: 1910 February, John Galsworthy, Justice: A Tragedy in Four Acts, London: Duckworth and Co. […], published March 1910, →OCLC, Act I, page 15:
text: "She isn't going to sue me for breach of promise?" / "She never had any intention of doing so." / The Honorable Freddie sank back on the pillows. / "Good egg!" he said with fervor. He beamed happily. "This," he observed, "is a bit of all right."
ref: 1915 September 3, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter XI, in Something New, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 326:
text: They tell me at Timothy's […] that Dartie has gone off at last. That'll be a relief to your father. He was a rotten egg.
ref: 1920, John Galsworthy, “On Forsyte ’Change”, in In Chancery (The Forsyte Saga; 2), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, part I, page 100:
text: Some big, hard-boiled egg meets up with a pretty face, and bingo! He cracks up and melts.
ref: 1932, Edgar Wallace, Merian C[aldwell] Cooper, novelization by Delos W[heeler] Lovelace, chapter 4, in King Kong, trade softcover edition, Nevada City, Calif.: Underwood Books, published 2005, →ISBN, page 29:
text: "She's a tough egg." / "She must be, if she slung your brother Joe out."
ref: 1937 July 24 – September 11, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter I, in Summer Moonshine, 1st UK edition, London: Herbert Jenkins […], published 1938, →OCLC, page 18:
text: Up close he looked like a pretty tough egg. His hair was bristling up in the back in spite of what smelled like a whole bottle of Wildroot Creme Oil and he had the flat, oddly shiny eyes that some deep-sea fish have.
ref: 1980, Stephen King, “The Wedding Gig”, in Skeleton Crew (A Signet Book), New York, N.Y.: New American Library, published June 1986, →ISBN, page 259:
glosses: Senses relating to people.
A person; a fellow.
glosses: Senses relating to people.
A white person considered to be overly infatuated with East Asia.
hypernyms: race traitor
hyponyms: Koreaboo
wapanese
weeaboo
weeb
wumao
glosses: Senses relating to people.
A user of the microblogging service Twitter identified by the default avatar (historically an image of an egg (sense 1.1.1)) rather than a custom image; hence, a newbie or noob.
examples: text: That fits, though, she thought. Wear the same outfit day after day, your brain gets numb to how it looks or feels—Wendy shut the album. No. […] She hated analyzing the whys of [not-out] trans girls. She had always hated it, and she hated how easy it had become; the bottomless hole of egg mode.
ref: 2018, Casey Plett, edited by Susan Safyan, Little Fish, Vancouver, B.C.: Arsenal Pulp Press, →ISBN, page 24:
text: So I remember being told, in the very early part of my transition, that I had been, until now, an egg, and—as powerfully rooted in a belief in latency as I found myself[.]
ref: 2020, Grace Lavery, “Egg Theory's Early Style”, in Transgender Studies Quarterly, page 384:
glosses: Senses relating to people.
A person regarded as having not yet realized they are transgender, who has not yet come out as transgender, or who is in the early stages of transitioning.
qualifier: transgender slang
examples: raw_tags: to cause someone to realize that they are transgender
text: to crack someone's egg
glosses: Senses relating to people.
A person regarded as having not yet realized they are transgender, who has not yet come out as transgender, or who is in the early stages of transitioning.
One's lack of awareness that one is transgender.
qualifier: transgender slang
examples: text: Shut up, you egg!
glosses: Senses relating to people.
A foolish or obnoxious person.
examples: text: VVhat you Egge? / Yong fry of Treachery?
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 145, column 2:
glosses: Senses relating to people.
A young person.
examples: text: [S]oe Power of Warre / From the firſt Egge of Libertie, out-Creepes / A fatall Serpent; […]
ref: a. 1658 (date written), George Daniel, “Trinarchodia. The Raigne of Henry the Fourth.”, in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Poems of George Daniel, Esq. of Beswick, Yorkshire. (1616–1657) from the Original MSS. in the British Museum: Hitherto Unprinted. […], volume IV, Boston, Lincolnshire: […] [Robert Roberts] for private circulation only, published 1878, →OCLC, stanza 348, page 88:
text: In ſhort, the Rebellion had been Cruſh'd in the Egg; and One Seaſonable Act of Rigour, had Sav'd the King, the Monarchy, the Church, and the Three Kingdoms.
ref: 1683 June 5 (Gregorian calendar), Roger L’Estrange, “The State of the City of London, in the Late Rebellion. […]”, in The Observator, in Dialogue, volume I, number 345, London: […] J. Bennet, for William Abington, […], →OCLC, page [1], column 1:
glosses: Something regarded as containing a (usually bad) thing at an early stage.
examples: text: This approach would be altered for an optimal omelette based exploit. One would spray the heap with the omelette code solely, then load a single copy of the additional shellcode eggs into memory outside the target region for the spray.
ref: 2015, Charles Smutz, Angelos Stavrou, “Preventing Exploits in Microsoft Office Documents through Content Randomization”, in Herbert Bos, Fabian Monrose, Gregory Blanc, editors, Research in Attacks, Intrusions, and Defenses: 18th International Symposium, RAID 2015, Kyoto, Japan, November 2–4, 2015: Proceedings (LNCS; 9404; Sublibrary SL4 (Security and Cryptology)), Cham, Switzerland; Heidelberg, Baden-Württemburg: Springer International Publishing, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 241:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: One of the blocks of data injected into a program's address space for use by certain forms of shellcode, such as "omelettes".
Derived terms: afteregg
American hand-egg
an egg's age
ant egg
armadillo egg
Arzak egg
a wild goose never laid a tame egg
bad egg
barn egg
better an egg today than a hen tomorrow
boiled egg
butter-and-egg man
butter-and-egg money
century egg
chicken and egg
chicken-and-egg
chicken-and-egg problem
chicken-and-egg question
chicken and egg question
chicken-or-egg question
chicken or egg question
chicken-and-egg situation
chicken or egg
chucky egg
cloud egg
cock egg
coddled egg
colored egg
Columbus egg
cosmic egg
cracked as an egg
crack someone's egg
crack the egg
cuckoo's egg
curate's egg
darning egg
deviled egg
devilled egg
dippy egg
dog egg
don't put all your eggs in one basket
dropped egg
duck egg
duck-egg blue
Easter egg
egg and dart
egg and spoon race
eggball
egg banjo
egg bank
egg beater
eggbeater
egg Benedict
egg-bird
egg-bound
eggbox
egg bread
eggburger
egg burster
egg butter
egg capsule
egg-capsule
egg carton
egg case
egg cell
eggcellent
eggceptional
eggciting
egg coffee
eggcorn
egg-cosy
egg cosy
egg-cozy
egg cozy
eggcrate
egg-crated
egg-crate
egg crate
egg-crating
egg crating
egg cream
eggcup
egg cup
egg custard
egg custard tart
egg cutter
egg dance
egg donation
egg drop
egg drop soup
egg drop syndrome
egg-eater
eggel
eggery
eggetarian
eggette
eggflation
egg flip
egg flower soup
eggfly
egg foo young
eggfruit
egg fruit
Egg Harbor
Egg Harbor City
egghead
eggheaded
egghot
egg-hot
egg hunt
eggie
egg in a basket
egg in a hole
egg-in-a-hole
egg in a nest
egg in one's beer
egg-in-the-hole
egglayer
egglaying
eggless
egglike
eggling
eggman
eggmass
egg matza
egg matzah
egg matzo
egg mayonnaise
egg moon
eggnancy
eggnant
eggnog
egg nog
egg noodle
egg of Columbus
egg on horseback
egg on one's face
egg pasta
eggplant
egg-plant
egg pod
egg replacer
egg ring
egg roll
egg rolling
egg sac
eggsactly
egg salad
egg sandwich
egg-shaped
eggshell
eggs in moonshine
egg slice
eggsperience
egg spoon
eggspot
egg squash
eggstraordinary
eggstravaganza
eggstring
egg tart
eggtimer
egg-timer
egg timer
egg tooth
egg topper
eggtray
egg waffle
egg wash
egg whisk
egg-white
egg white
eggwich
eggwoman
egg wrack
eggy
eggyolk
egg yolk
Faberge egg
Fabergé egg
framed egg
fresh country egg
fried egg
fried-egg plant
garden egg
gashouse egg
gas-house egg
golden egg
golden egg bug
good egg
goose egg
go suck an egg
guggy egg
handegg
hand-egg
hobo egg
hundred-year egg
jade egg
kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
laundry egg
lay an egg
long egg
love egg
marble egg
millennium egg
nest egg
nonegg
one's egg breaks
one's egg cracks
Orphic egg
over-egg the pudding
pace egg
pace-egg
Pascha egg
Pasch egg
paste-egg
paste egg
philosopher's egg
pickled egg
picnic egg
pizza eggs
poached egg
poached egg daisy
pouched egg
power-egg
power egg
preserved egg
put an egg in one's shoe and beat it
red egg
robin egg blue
robin's-egg blue
rolex
rotten egg
rotten-egg gas
rotten egg gas
Russian egg
salted egg
scotch egg
Scotch egg
scrambled egg
scrambled eggs
scrambled egg slime mold
sea egg
smooth as eggs
son-in-law egg
steamed egg
superegg
sure as eggs is eggs
tea egg
there's more than one way to cook an egg
there's more than one way to crack an egg
thousand-year egg
thousand-year-old egg
thunder egg
thunderegg
twenty-minute egg
Ukrainian Easter egg
vegetable egg
vegetarian egg
whore's egg
wind egg
witch's egg
wobbly egg
world egg
yoni egg
Related terms: oo-
oval
ovo-
ovum
caviar
roe