babe

[ beyb ]
See synonyms for babe on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a baby or child.

  2. an innocent or inexperienced person.

  1. Usually Babe .Southern U.S. (used, often before the surname, as a familiar name for a boy or man, especially the youngest of a family.)

  2. Slang.

    • Sometimes Disparaging and Offensive. a girl or woman, especially an attractive one.

    • an attractive young man.

    • Sometimes Babe . an affectionate or familiar term of address (sometimes offensive when used to strangers, casual acquaintances, subordinates, etc., especially by a male to a female).

Idioms about babe

  1. babe in the woods, an innocent, unsuspecting person, especially one likely to be victimized by others: Some highly informed people are mere babes in the woods where the stock market is concerned.: Also babe in the wood.

Origin of babe

1
First recorded in 1150–1200; 1915–20 for def. 4; Middle English; early Middle English baban, probably nursery word in origin

Other words for babe

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use babe in a sentence

  • What children they were with their simple unmorality of artists, as ignorant of the real world as babes in a wood!

    Ancestors | Gertrude Atherton
  • Here was something for the "babes and sucklings" of the craft of violin making to swallow.

    Antonio Stradivari | Horace William Petherick
  • Ive seen a many people die, little babes and great strong men, and I know when deaths a-coming well enough.

  • A Hibernian, seeing an old man and woman in the stocks, said that they put him in mind of "the babes in the wood."

  • Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength (founded glory).

British Dictionary definitions for babe

babe

/ (beɪb) /


noun
  1. a baby

  2. informal a naive, gullible, or unsuspecting person (often in the phrase a babe in arms)

  1. informal a young woman or man perceived as being sexually attractive

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012