Word.ws English Dictionary

lying-ins

lying-ins is the plural of lying-in.

Meaning of lying-in

Noun

lying-in (plural lying-ins or lyings-in)

  1. The final stages of pregnancy; accouchement.
    • from our first knowing each other, which was soon after my lying-in, we were almost inseparable companions […]1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Folio Society, published 1973, page 404
  2. A period of postpartum confinement, typically a month or longer, formerly common in Europe and still practiced in some parts of the world.
    • As she lay by the birth-fire, she gazed on the face of the child asleep in the bamboo cradle […] Once free from the lying-in, Linchong set herself to bringing up the baby.1995, Meredith Borthwick, transl., Many Lives, Kukrit Pramoj, pages 177–8
  3. (historical) The process of childbirth and the immediate postpartum recovery period of rest and confinement in bed.
    • '[…] as soon as she recovered from her lying-in, for I found her near her delivery […]'1811, [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

See all 5 meanings of lying-in

Questions about lying-ins

What is lying-ins the plural of?
Lying-ins is the plural of lying-in.

Words near lying-ins in the dictionary

  1. lying to
  2. lying upon
  3. lying waste
  4. lying with
  5. lying-in
  6. lying-ins
  7. lyinger
  8. lyingest
  9. lyingly
  10. lyings
  11. lyings-in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lying-ins (page history and authors); lying-in (page history and authors). 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.

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