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birth pangs

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR birth pangs ON THESAURUS.COM

plural noun

pains associated with the process of childbirth.

Informal. the hardships and difficulties accompanying a major innovation, change, or new venture.

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RELATED WORDS

delivery, travail, birth, childbearing, parturition, throes, pains

Nearby words

Origin of birth pangs

First recorded in 1885–90

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for birth pangs

He can only study the trend of things and "alleviate the birth-pangs" of the new time.
Socialism and Democracy in Europe|Samuel P. Orth
No Hercules will reward my travail, so do not expect of me the birth-pangs that are torturing Virgil.
Roads from Rome|Anne C. E. Allinson
In anguish, fear, and humiliation had his love been born, but the birth-pangs had been as brief as they were intense.
Idolatry|Julian Hawthorne
The marks of the birth-pangs remain on the land; its struggle for breath was too terrible, its scars too deep to hide or cover.
The Maid-At-Arms|Robert W. Chambers

It would seem as if bringing forth must be always accompanied by birth-pangs.
The Secret Life |Elizabeth Bisland