bosom
Part of speech: noun
adj
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: anatomy
medicine
sciences
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”).
Inflected forms:
form: bosoms
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: bosome
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bosome
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: bosoms
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: bosoming
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: bosomed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: bosomed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: bosome
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: The breast or chest of a human (or sometimes of another animal).
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: The seat of one's inner thoughts, feelings, etc.; one's secret feelings; desire.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: The protected interior or inner part of something; the area enclosed as by an embrace.
pos: noun
examples: … Mr Toodle … was refreshing himself with tea in the bosom of his family.
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.
gloss: The part of a dress etc. covering the chest; a neckline.
pos: noun
examples: And he put his hand into his boſome: and when hee tooke it out, behold, his hand was leprous as ſnowe.
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.
gloss: A breast, one of a woman's breasts
pos: noun
examples: I dont [sic] know that her bosoms were fuller than usual.
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.
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.
gloss: Any thing or place resembling the breast; a supporting surface; an inner recess; the interior.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
The appointed place was on the edge of a deep, rocky ravine, down in whose dark bosom brawled and foamed a little mountain torrent.
gloss: A depression round the eye of a millstone.
pos: noun
examples: The bosom of the mill-stone is a central depression, and the staff is adjustable to test the symmetry of the concavity.
gloss: In a very close relationship.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: bosom buddies
Lieut. Creecy of the navy, who has been detailed to the aerial experiments at the fort, and who was a bosom companion of young Selfridge, was brokenhearted.
gloss: To enclose or carry in the bosom; to keep with care; to take to heart; to cherish.
pos: verb
examples: Bosom up my counsel,
You’ll find it wholesome.
gloss: To conceal; to hide from view; to embosom.
pos: verb
examples: To happy Convents bosom’d deep in Vines,
Where slumber Abbots, purple as their Wines;
Those whom you feared most are now bosoming themselves in the queen's grace; and though her highness signified displeasure in outward sort, yet did she like the marrow of your book.
Beyond were the pines, and a rugged road, flint-edged, full of dips and rises, turns and twists, hovering on edges, or bosoming itself in deep rock-strewn cuts.
gloss: To belly; to billow, swell or bulge.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Just above the recess the cliff bosomed out with a full swell for some two or three feet, effectually preventing any one’s looking down into the nest from above […]
1905, Alex Macdonald, In Search of El Dorado, London: T. Fisher Unwin, Part II, “The Five-Mile Rush,” p. 92,
What Stewart called a “langtailie coat” spread out behind him like streamers in a breeze, a “biled” collar had, in the same gentleman’s terse language, “burst its moorings” and projected in two miniature wings at the back of his ears, and a shirt that had once been white, bosomed out expansively through an open vest.
gloss: To belly; to cause to billow, swell or bulge.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 1822, James Hogg, The Three Perils of Man, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Volume 3, Chapter 12, pp. 440-441,
I looked again, and though I was sensible it must be a delusion brought on by the stroke of his powerful rod, yet I did see the appearance of a glorious fleet of ships coming bounding along the surface of the firmament of air, while every mainsail was bosomed out like the side of a Highland mountain.
1855, The Scald [pseudonym of George Smellie], “Sketches of a Voyage to Hudson’s Bay” in The Sea: Sketches of a Voyage to Hudson’s Bay, and Other Poems, London: Hope & Co., p. 45,
Thus one by one they mount, and spreading wide,
The transverse wings extend on either side,
And, lightly bosomed by the gentle gale,
She seems a moving pyramid of ail.
Derived words: 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
Translations:
lang: Southern Altai
word: койын
roman: koyïn
lang: Arabic
word: ثَدْي
roman: ṯady
lang: Arabic
word: صدر
roman: ṣedr
lang: Armenian
word: կուրծք
roman: kurckʻ
lang: Armenian
word: ծոց
roman: cocʻ
lang: Bulgarian
word: гърди
roman: gǎrdi
lang: Bulgarian
word: пазва
roman: pazva
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 胸部
roman: xiōngbù
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 乳房
roman: rǔfáng
lang: Czech
word: poprsí
lang: Dutch
word: boezem
lang: Faroese
word: barmur
lang: Finnish
word: povi
lang: Finnish
word: rinta
lang: French
word: sein
lang: Galician
word: seo
lang: German
word: Busen
lang: Gothic
word: 𐌱𐌰𐍂𐌼𐍃
roman: barms
lang: Greek
word: στήθος
roman: stíthos
lang: Hindi
word: स्तन
roman: stan
lang: Hungarian
word: kebel
lang: Hungarian
word: mell
lang: Icelandic
word: barmur
lang: Ingrian
word: seslä
lang: Ingrian
word: povvi
lang: Irish
word: broinne
lang: Italian
word: seno
lang: Japanese
word: 胸
roman: mune
lang: Korean
word: 가슴
roman: gaseum
lang: Latin
word: sinus
lang: Macedonian
word: града
roman: grada
lang: Macedonian
word: гради
roman: gradi
lang: Māori
word: ateate
lang: Māori
word: ateatenga
lang: Māori
word: poho
lang: Māori
word: uma
lang: Nahuatl
word: chichihualli
lang: Classical Nahuatl
word: ēlchiquihuitl
lang: Norwegian
word: barm
lang: Plautdietsch
word: Bossem
lang: Plautdietsch
word: Brost
lang: Portuguese
word: seio
lang: Russian
word: грудь
roman: grudʹ
lang: Russian
word: па́зуха
roman: pázuxa
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: broilleach
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: uchd
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: недра
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: прса
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: nedra
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: prsa
lang: Slovene
word: prsi
lang: Slovene
word: prsa
lang: Slovene
word: nedra
lang: Spanish
word: seno
lang: Spanish
word: pechera
lang: Spanish
word: busto
lang: Swedish
word: byst
lang: Swedish
word: barm
lang: Tamil
word: மார்பு
roman: mārpu
lang: Telugu
word: రొమ్ము
roman: rommu
lang: Turkish
word: koyun
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: گوگس
roman: göğüs
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: باغر
roman: bağır
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: قوین
roman: koyn
lang: Ukrainian
word: груди
roman: hrudy
lang: Ukrainian
word: пазуха
roman: pazuxa
lang: Volapük
word: blöt