afterbirth

[af-ter-burth, ahf-]

noun

1. the placenta and fetal membranes expelled from the uterus after childbirth.

afterbirth

/ ˈɑːftəˌbɜːθ /

noun

1. the placenta and fetal membranes expelled from the uterus after the birth of the offspring

afterbirth

1. The placenta and fetal membranes expelled from the uterus following the birth of a mammal.

Word History and Origins

Origin of afterbirth¹

First recorded in 1580–90; after + birth

Example Sentences

He showed me one young lamb barely an hour old, its mother still licking the afterbirth off.

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Because they feed primarily on cow afterbirth and calf carcasses, they help clean up messes and reduce labor time.

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For once, Deborah feels what it's like to be upstaged, whether by her ego, her prejudices, or, at a clarifying low point, an animal's afterbirth.

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I could almost taste the dough, yeasty and full like afterbirth.

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“It was years later,” says Reed-Allen now living in Urbana, Md., “when I realized afterbirth had been left inside me and that I could have died.”

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