baby
Americannoun
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babies
plural
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an infant or very young child.
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a newborn or very young animal.
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the youngest member of a family, group, etc..
I was the baby of the family for ten years, until my twin brothers were born.
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an adult who behaves like a child; an immature, helpless, or fearful person.
Just swallow the medicine—don't be such a baby!
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a human fetus.
The baby hasn’t arrived yet, but the nursery is ready.
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Informal.
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Sometimes Disparaging and Offensive. a girl or woman, especially an attractive one.
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a person of whom one is deeply fond; sweetheart.
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(sometimes initial capital letter) an affectionate or familiar address (sometimes offensive when used to strangers, casual acquaintances, subordinates, etc., especially by a male to a female).
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a man or boy; fellow.
He's a tough baby to have to deal with.
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an invention, creation, project, or the like that requires one's special attention or expertise or of which one is especially proud.
His charitable foundation is his baby and it truly shows.
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an object; thing.
Those big babies can carry a lot of cargo.
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adjective
verb (used with object)
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babies,
present (3rd person singular)
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babied,
past participle, past
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babying
present participle
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to treat like a young child; pamper.
She still babies her son although he's nearly 24.
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to handle or use with special care; treat gently.
noun
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a newborn or recently born child; infant
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( as modifier )
baby food
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an unborn child; fetus
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the youngest or smallest of a family or group
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a newborn or recently born animal
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( as modifier )
baby rabbits
-
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derogatory an immature person
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slang a young woman or sweetheart: often used as a term of address expressing affection
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a project of personal concern
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to be left with the responsibility
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to lose the essential element by indiscriminate rejection
adjective
verb
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to treat with love and attention
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to treat (someone) like a baby; pamper or overprotect
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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babysimple
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babiessimple
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have babiedperfect
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has babiedperfect
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am babyingprogressive
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are babyingprogressive
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is babyingprogressive
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have been babyingperfect progressive
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has been babyingperfect progressive
Past
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babiedsimple
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had babiedperfect
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was babyingprogressive
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were babyingprogressive
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had been babyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of baby
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; see origin at babe, -y 2
Explanation
A baby is the one wearing diapers and a pacifier in her mouth. That baby is so darn lovable, however, that the word is perhaps overused to describe anyone or anything you feel passionately about. Everybody loves the baby, so much so that you might call your girlfriend 'baby' even though she's 23. If you work in construction, you might call any woman with nice legs baby as she walks past. You also might snidely call your little brother baby when he cries about getting a ball thrown in his face. When your mother has to take him to the ER for stitches after said wounding, you might defensively say "She's just babying him, he's fine."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Dishes filled the sink, laundry baskets overflowed, toys littered the floor, a highchair catcher was crusted with baby food and the small entryway was nearly blocked with returns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
"We should have been leaving with our baby too, but we were leaving with a memory box," Danielle said.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
Speaking publicly for the first time about what happened, Danielle said no-one should be sent home still carrying a baby who has died.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
Danielle and her 34-year-old partner Anthony Miller had been delighted to learn they were having a baby girl.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
Leading me to believe that a little blond-haired baby girl would have mysteriously ended up on the doorstep of an orphanage somewhere.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
A proposed trial of a hepatitis B vaccine on newborn babies in Guinea-Bissau has been cancelled following accusations that the trial was "unethical" and "neocolonial".
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
To leave the hospital they had to walk past other parents holding their babies.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
“You can’t increase the active population 20 years from now if you haven’t made the babies today.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
Vitamin D deficiency is linked to the bone disease rickets in babies and infants.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
Once more, Penelope thought of Madame Ionesco’s vision of the wolf babies —but the old soothsayer had said nothing about a tree.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
Lux missed all of last season after tearing two ligaments in his right knee in a freak spring-training baserunning mishap, and he acknowledged that he babied the surgically repaired knee in his return this season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2024
It also doesn’t include fellow all-star Tony Gonsolin because the Los Angeles Dodgers have so babied his development that he doesn’t have a 20-start season yet.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 13, 2022
I babied those potatoes so they would not brown.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2022
In bitter January temperatures, that range fell closer to 225 miles, no matter how I babied the throttle or dialed back on cabin temps.
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2022
“Look, if you wanted to be babied, you should have asked Peeta.”
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
“I was babying it, like fine china,” says the Melbourne, Australia, resident.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
O’Neal objected quickly and loudly, telling Barkley to “stop babying these players.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2024
But as for the Mariners babying him and not letting him come back, you’d be 100 percent incorrect on this situation.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 11, 2022
“To me, the baseball players, if they stop babying the pitchers — a lot of those guys they’ve come up hitting all their life and they’re really good players,” Del Rio said with a smile.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 25, 2021
“Oh, stop babying him. He's nearly an adult.”
From "Tradition" by Brendan Kiely
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