Also 5–7 bab. [Prob. a contraction of BABAN; cf. Tom, Will, Gib, Hugh, and similar pet-names. Now superseded in ordinary use by its own diminutive BABY (cf. Tommy, Willie, etc.), and retained chiefly as a literary and poetic word. Babe, and not baby, is used in the Bible.]
1. An infant, a young child.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 290. How this babe all bloody cried.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 149. Alas, my bab, myn innocent.
1540. Hyrde, Vives’ Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592), Y v. Blessed of God from his babes age.
1557. N. T. (Genev.), 1 John ii. 1. My babes, these thinges write I vnto you, that ye synne not.
1605. Shaks., Macb., IV. i. 30. Finger of Birth-strangled Babe [rhymes, drab, slab].
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 381. And kiss’d her thoughtless babes with many a tear.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., I. (1810), 70. Recorded next a Babe of love I trace!
† 2. A doll, puppet; = BABY sb. 2. Obs.
1530. Palsgr., 196/1. Babe that children play with, povppee.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., May, 240. Bearing a truss of trifles … As bells, and babes, and glasses in hys packe.
1595. Shaks., John, III. iv. 58. I should forget my sonne Or madly thinke a babe of clowts were he.
3. fig. A childish person; = BABY sb. 5. Babes in Christ: newly-made converts to Christianity.
1526. Tindale, 1 Cor. iii. 1. As vnto carnall, even as it were vnto babes in Christ.
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., 53. Wavering babs caried about with everie wind of doctrin.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref., 1. Hee was no babe, but a great clearke.
1771. Wesley, Wks. (1872), VI. 6. Even babes in Christ are in such a sense perfect.
4. Comb. and Attrib.; cf. BABY sb. B.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, III. App. lxxxvi. A young babe-soul from thence to gain.
1826. Scott, Woodst., xx. We, the babe-eaters, had too many acquaintances at Brentford.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, II. i. 13. He came with the babe-faced lord.
1868. People’s Mag., 1 April, 213 (title of verses), Babe-wisdom.
