with child

English

Etymology

Replaced earlier mid child. Compare Danish and Swedish med barn.

Prepositional phrase

with child

1. (euphemistic) Pregnant.
   • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, act 3, scene 2:

     I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.

   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, chapter 20:

     Nothing was more frightful to me than his caresses, and the apprehensions of being with child again by him was ready to throw me into fits.

   • 1999, Rebecca Hourwich Reyher, Zulu Woman:

     I should have had two children, but I find myself with only one. Yet he spends his time with other women who are already with child.

Translations

pregnant (euphemistic)

• Catalan: en estat de bona esperança
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 有了 (zh) (yǒule)

• Danish: med barn
• Finnish: pieniin päin
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: in guter Hoffnung sein, in der Hoffnung sein
• Irish: ag iompar clainne
• Malay: hamil, berbadan dua
• Swedish: med barn (sv)