[L. = edge, border; in med.L., a region on the border of Hell.]
1. Occas. used (as the normal form for English adoption) = LIMBO 1, Limbus patrum = ‘the limbo of the fathers,’ i.e., of the just who died before Christ’s coming. Limbus infantum = ‘the limbo of infants’: see LIMBO 1. Also transf.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxxvii. 198. What þanne, is lymbus lorne, allas!
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 514/1. The state of soules, both in heauen, hell, purgatory, paradyse, & Limbus patrum.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 418 b. There be sayd to be 4. Mansions in hell…. The second Lymbus, a place for such as are not Baptised.
a. 1623. W. Pemble, On Zach. (1629), 148. He … had ransomed the Fathers out of their Purgatory, or infernall Limbus.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 1000. As if all Spirits and Soules of Men, came forth out of one Divine Limbus.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., § 264. 194. The Limbus or Physitians purgatory.
a. 1679. T. Goodwin, Expos. Ephes., Wks. 1681, I. II. 121. The Papists … put Children … into a state call’d Limbus Infantum, wherein they do as it were eternally sleep.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev. (C. P. S.), 224. By the new French constitution, the best and the wisest representatives go equally with the worst into this Limbus Patrum.
† b. A prison; = LIMBO 2 a. Obs.
1583. Leg. Bp. St. Androis, 349. Laich in a lymbus, whair they lay, Then Lowrie lowsit them long or day.
2. Used techn. in lit. sense of ‘border’ or ‘edge’; e.g., the ridge that borders the crater of a volcano; in Antiq. the rim of a crater or wine-bowl; in Bot. = LIMB sb.2 3 d; in Conch. ‘the circumference of the valves of a bivalve shell from the disc to the border or margin’ (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1888).
1671. Willoughby, in Phil. Trans., VI. 2126. Having tipp’d the ends, inverted them, and fasten’d a Limbus or ring of soft wax to the great ends.
1697. T. Smith, Voy. Constantinople, Misc. Cur. (1708), III. 23. Now we see plainly the Smoke briskly issuing out of the Crater, the Limbus of which was all black.
1727–52. Chambers, Cycl., Limb, Limbus, the outermost border, or graduated edge, of an astrolabe, quadrant, or the like mathematical instrument.
1793. Martyn, Lang. Bot., Limbus, the border or upper dilated part of a monopetalous corolla.
1806. J. Galpine, Brit. Bot., 62. Primula. 1. … limbus of the cor. flat…. 3. … limbus of the cor. concave.
1857. Birch, Anc. Pottery (1858), II. 272. Round the crater is the limbus, which is a decorated border of floral or other ornaments.
