babeship

Noun

babeship (plural babeships)

1. (archaic) Infancy; babyhood.
   • Neither was he aſhamed to confeſſe that he had through errour doen amyſſe in many thinges, by reaſon that he had not euen from his tendre babeſhip ben nouſled in the preceptes of philoſophie.1564 February, Erasmus, “The Saiynges of Philippus Kyng of Macedonie”, in Nicolas Udall [i.e., Nicholas Udall], transl., Apophthegmes, that is to Saie, Prompte, Quicke, Wittie and Sentẽcious...
   • New converts in Christ, though men grown, are not young men in Christ presently the first hour, and there is a middle age besides to be passed through ere they come to be fathers; and thence all that time between those two, of babeship in Christ and old age in Christ, must be understood and meant...1863, The Works of Thomas Goodwin - Volume 7, page 501
2. (archaic, "his", "her", or (plural) "their" or "our") A baby.
   • Saturn, for instance, is at least half a dozen times bigger than this world; is it not, then, natural to think, that if inhabited by rational beings, by "lords of the creation," as we pigmies style ourselves, that they should be six times bigger than us? therefore, a new born infant of a lady of...1838, George Home, Memoirs of an Aristocrat, and Reminiscences of the Emperor Napoleon
   • It was toward evening of that warm, August afternoon that the farmer, passing, spied my babeship, as bare as cupid, perched there in the hay.1899, “Morningside”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 4, page 242