- a very young child or animal
- The baby's crying!
- a newborn baby
- My sister's expecting a baby (= she is pregnant).
- She had a baby last year.
- The baby was born last night.
- Mother and baby are doing well.
- The baby is due in October.
- The baby was delivered by a midwife.
- a baby boy/girl
- a baby daughter/son/sister/brother
- baby food/clothes
- a baby monkey/blackbird
Collocations ChildrenChildrenHaving a baby/child- want a baby/a child/kids
- start a family
- conceive/be expecting/be going to have a baby/child
- miss your period
- become/get/be/find out that you are pregnant
- have a baby/a child/kids/a son/a daughter/twins/a family
- have a normal/a difficult/an unwanted pregnancy; an easy/a difficult/a home birth
- be in/go into/induce labour (especially US English) labor
- have/suffer/cause a miscarriage
- give birth to a child/baby/daughter/son/twins
- bring up/ (especially North American English) raise a child/family
- care for/ (especially British English) look after a baby/child/kid
- change (British English) a nappy/(North American English) a diaper/a baby
- feed/breastfeed/bottle-feed a baby
- be entitled to/go on maternity/paternity leave
- go back/return to work after maternity leave
- need/find/get a babysitter/good quality affordable childcare
- balance/combine work and childcare/child-rearing/family life
- educate/teach/home-school a child/kid
- punish/discipline/spoil a child/kid
- adopt a baby/child/kid
- offer a baby for/put a baby up for adoption
- (especially British English) foster a child/kid
- be placed with/be raised by foster parents
Extra ExamplesTopics Life stagesa1- They are not sure if they want a baby.
- Can you take the baby while I unlock the door?
- He took an interest in the growing baby even before it was born.
- I could feel the baby moving inside me.
- She lost her baby three months into her pregnancy.
- The doctor said the baby was growing nicely.
- They named the baby Charlie.
- Their first baby arrived three weeks early.
- She decided to put her baby up for adoption.
- They would like to adopt a newborn baby.
- Young children and unborn babies are at greatest risk.
- Premature babies are at increased risk of health problems.
- She rocked the baby to sleep in her arms.
- The baby cooed happily on the rug.
- He just broke down and cried like a baby.
- She's a midwife in an intensive care unit for premature babies.
- The illness is common in newborn babies and is easily treated.
- Smoking in pregnancy increases the risk of producing a low birthweight baby.
- After some months, the baby learns to walk along branches by holding onto its mother's fur.
- What do you call a baby kangaroo?
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- new
- newborn
- tiny
- …
- have
- want
- conceive
- …
- be due
- arrive
- be born
- …
- boy
- girl
- brother
- …
- sleep like a baby
Definitions on the go
Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
- (informal) the youngest member of a family or group
- He's the baby of the team.
- (disapproving) a person who behaves like a young child and is easily upset
- Stop crying and don't be such a baby.
- (especially North American English, informal) a word used to address somebody, especially your wife, husband or partner, in a way that expresses love but that can be offensive if used by a man to a woman he does not know
Word Originlate Middle English: probably imitative of an infant's first attempts at speech.
Idioms
See baby in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee baby in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishbe your/somebody’s baby
- (informal) to be a plan or project that somebody is responsible for and cares about because they have created it
be like taking candy from a baby
- (informal) used to emphasize how easy it is to do something
- I thought it was going to be difficult to get funding for the project, but in the end it was like taking candy from a baby.
leave somebody holding the baby
- (informal) to suddenly make somebody responsible for something important that is really your responsibility
- He changed to another job and we were left holding the baby.
sleep like a log/baby
- (informal) to sleep very well
- He was so tired after all his exertions, he slept like a baby.
- I usually sleep like a log.
throw the baby out with the bathwater
- (informal) to lose something that you want at the same time as you are trying to get rid of something that you do not want
Check pronunciation:
baby