PREGNANT


Meaning of PREGNANT in English

I. ˈpregnənt adjective

Etymology: Middle English preignant, from Middle French, from present participle of preindre to press, from Old French priembre, from Latin premere — more at press

archaic : cogent , convincing , forcible , pressing

a pregnant example

II. adjective

Etymology: Middle English, from Latin praegnant-, praegnans, alteration (influenced by -ant-, -ans -ant) of earlier praegnat-, praegnas, from prae- pre- + gnat- (from root of nasci to be born) — more at nation

1.

a. : containing unborn young within the body : preparing to bring forth : gravid , gestating

b. : of or relating to pregnancy

pregnant urine

c. : being about to produce or realize : containing as implicit : capable of producing

the ideals with which the modern world is pregnant — Walter Lippmann

2.

a. : abounding in fancy, wit, or resource of mind : fertile , germinal , inventive

all this has been said … by great and pregnant artists — Times Literary Supplement

b. obsolete : full of promise : quick of apprehension

3. : rich in significance or implication : heavy with suggestion or import : having possibilities of development or consequence : meaningful , weighty

the journal brimmed over with his thoughts, many of them thin, diffuse, abstract, others nutty and pregnant — Van Wyck Brooks

4. : containing the germ or shape of future events : bearing latent potentialities, results, or issues

the 1930s were pregnant years — Gordon Bell

5. obsolete : open , ready , receptive

my matter hath no voice, lady, but to your own most pregnant and vouchsafed ear — Shakespeare

6. : exhibiting fertility : teeming

all nature seemed pregnant with life — L.F.Herreshoff

Synonyms: see expressive

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.