limb
/lɪm/
limb noun: a major appendage of human or animal, used for locomotion (such as an arm, leg or wing). Also the ellipsis of limb of Satan.
Noun (1)
limb (plural limbs)
- A major appendage of human or animal, used for locomotion (such as an arm, leg or wing).
- UUhoſe hands are made to gripe a warlike Lance—
Their ſhoulders broad, for complet armour fit,
Their lims more large and of a bigger ſize
Than all the brats yſprong from Typhons loins:c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC... - Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy)...
- UUhoſe hands are made to gripe a warlike Lance—
- A branch of a tree.
- Synonyms:
- bough
- The part of the bow, from the handle to the tip.
- An elementary piece of the mechanism of a lock.
- A thing or person regarded as a part or member of, or attachment to, something else.
- That little limb of the devil has cheated the gallows.1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London...
Verb
limb (third-person singular simple present limbs, present participle limbing, simple past and past participle limbed)
- To remove the limbs from (an animal or tree).
- They limbed the felled trees before cutting them into logs.
- To supply with limbs.
- Innumerous living creatures , perfect forms ,
Limb'd and full grown: out of the ground uprose1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker... - Man was not made so large limbed and robust but that he must seek to narrow his world and wall in a space such as fitted him.1859, Henry D. Thoreau, Walden
- Innumerous living creatures , perfect forms ,
- To thoroughly defeat an opponent in fisticuffs
- Brian limbed Roger over at the Beahive last night.
Noun (2)
limb (plural limbs)
- The apparent visual edge of a celestial body.
- the solar limb
- At 4h 57m 9s by my chronometer, (see Schedule B,) I observed with my telescope a small black speck on the preceding limb of the sun's disk, at the precise point to which I had been for some minutes directing my attention.1870, United States Naval Observatory, Reports on Observations of the Total Eclipse of the Sun, August, 7, 1869, page 174
- The graduated edge of a circle or arc.
- The border or upper spreading part of a monopetalous corolla, or of a petal or sepal; blade.
- The corolla limb of the moonvine Calonyction aculeatum is normally undivided.1945, “A new form of the moonvine Calonyction aculeatum with divided corolla limb, and length-of-day behavior and flowering of the common form”, in Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences...
Proper noun capitalized: Limb
Limb (plural Limbs)
- A surname.
Also used as
limb is also the ellipsis of limb of Satan.
limb meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Punjabi
limb in Hindi
- major appendage of human or animal
- अंग aṅg
limb in Urdu
- major appendage of human or animal
- انگ ang
limb in Bengali
- major appendage of human or animal
- অঙ্গ oṅgo
limb in Punjabi
- major appendage of human or animal
- ਅੰਗ aṅga
More languagesFewer languages
- limb in Odia
- ଅଙ୍ଗପ୍ରତ୍ଯଙ୍ଗ
- limb in Sanskrit
- अङ्ग aṅga
- limb in Tagalog
- galamay
- limb in Arabic
- طَرَف ṭaraf, عُضْو ʕuḍw
- limb in Indonesian
- anggota
- limb in Persian
- اندام andâm
- limb in Thai
- แขนขา kɛ̌ɛn kǎa, องค์ ong
- limb in Vietnamese
- chi, but see chân tay, tay chân, chân
- limb in Myanmar
- အင်္ဂါ angga
- Dhivehi
- އަނގުން aⁿgun̊
Examples of limb in a sentence
- The arm and forearm are parts of the upper limb in the human body.
- You can bind my limbs, but you can never deprive me of my free will.
- He doesn't want to go out on a limb, but he really should give it a try.
Synonyms of limb
Forms of limb
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | limbs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | limbs |
| present participle | limbing |
| past participle | limbed |
| past | limbed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Limbs |
Origin of limb
From Middle English lyme, lim, from Old English lim (“limb, branch”), from Proto-West Germanic *limu, from Proto-Germanic *limuz (“branch, limb”). Cognate with Old Norse limr (“limb”). The spelling with the silent unetymological -b first arose in the late 1500s. Compare crumb.
From Latin limbus (“border”).
Variant of Lum.
Words formed from limb
- belimb
- CHILD syndrome
- dislimb
- forelimb
- go out on a limb
- hind limb
- interlimb
- intralimb
- life and limb
- limb brightening
- limb darkening
- limb from limb
- limb girdle syndrome
- limbless
- limbline
- limb-mammary syndrome
- limbmeal
- limb of the law
- limbward
- limby
- mooselimb
- out on a limb
- phantom limb
- renal dysplasia-limb defects syndrome
- risk life and limb
- risk one's life and limb
- Roux limb
- spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia-short limb-abnormal calcification syndrome
- unlimb
- limb-brightened
- limb-brightening
- limb-darkened
- limb-darkening
Phrases with limb
- moose limb
- limb darkened
- limb of Satan
- limb brightened
- goes out on a limb
- gone out on a limb
- went out on a limb
- going out on a limb
- risks life and limb
- risked life and limb
- limb girdle syndromes
- risking life and limb
3 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with limb
Questions about limb
- What does limb mean?
- Limb means a major appendage of human or animal, used for locomotion (such as an arm, leg or wing).
- What is limb in Hindi?
- Limb in Hindi is अंग (aṅg). See Limb meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is limb?
- Limb can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce limb?
- Limb is pronounced /lɪm/.
- What is the plural of limb?
- The plural of limb is limbs.
Words near limb in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: limb (page history and authors); Limb (page history and authors); limb (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-limb.ogg.
Cite this entry: “limb.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/limb. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.