Word: bosom Part of Speech: noun 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”). Pronunciation: /ˈbʊz(ə)m/, /ˈbʌz(ə)m/ 1. The breast or chest of a human (or sometimes of another animal). Labels: dated Example: 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. Example: Mary felt annoyed at the girl; just because bras had become passé, did a girl with so pronounced a bosom have to cater to fashion? In this case practicality dictated a bra, and Mary stood at the desk feeling herself flushing with disapproval. 2. The seat of one's inner thoughts, feelings, etc.; one's secret feelings; desire. Example: 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. Example: 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. 3. The protected interior or inner part of something; the area enclosed as by an embrace. Example: … Mr Toodle … was refreshing himself with tea in the bosom of his family. Example: 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. 4. The part of a dress etc. covering the chest; a neckline. Example: And he put his hand into his boſome: and when hee tooke it out, behold, his hand was leprous as ſnowe. Example: 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. 5. A breast, one of a woman's breasts Example: I dont [sic] know that her bosoms were fuller than usual. Example: 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. 6. Any thing or place resembling the breast; a supporting surface; an inner recess; the interior. Example: 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. Example: The appointed place was on the edge of a deep, rocky ravine, down in whose dark bosom brawled and foamed a little mountain torrent. 7. A depression round the eye of a millstone. Example: The bosom of the mill-stone is a central depression, and the staff is adjustable to test the symmetry of the concavity.