Edit page | Page history | Printable version

pregnant

1. Being with young, as a female; having conceived; great with young; breeding; teeming; gravid; preparing to bring forth.

2. Heavy with important contents, significance, or issue; full of consequence or results; weighty; as, pregnant replies. A pregnant argument. . A pregnant brevity.

3. Full of promise; abounding in ability, resources, etc.; as, a pregnant youth. Wherein the pregnant enemy does much. (Shak) Pregnant construction, one in which more is implied than is said; as, the beasts trembled forth from their dens, that is, came forth trembling with fright.

Origin: L. Praegnans, -antis; prae = before _ genere, gignere, to beget: cf. F. Pregnant. See Gender, 2d Kin.

A pregnant woman.