limb

Meanings

Noun

• A major appendage of human or animal, used for locomotion (such as an arm, leg or wing).
• A branch of a tree.
• 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.
• The part of a corolla beyond the throat.
• The edge of a star or planet.
• The apparent visual edge of a celestial body.
• 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.

Verb

• To remove the limbs from (an animal or tree).
• To supply with limbs.

Related

Similar words

• delimb

Origin

• From Middle English lyme, lim, from Old English lim ("limb, branch"), from Proto-Germanic *limuz ("branch, limb"). Cognate with Old Norse limr ("limb"). The silent -b began to appear in the late 1500s.
• From Latin limbus ("border").