DictionaryAI

babe

noun
BAYB/beɪb/

Pluralbabes

3 meanings of babe

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  1. 1
    darlingnounendearing
    An affectionate form of address, used like darling.

    Don't worry, babe, we'll figure this out together.

    Hey, babe, want to grab a coffee before the movie starts?

    UsageMostly to a partner or close friend; from a stranger, babe can sound too familiar.

    Similarhoney, darling, sweetheart, baby, love

  2. 2
    attractive personnounslangcountable
    A good-looking person, especially a young woman.

    According to half the office, the new guy in accounting is a total babe.

    The film's poster was all fast cars and bikini-clad babes.

    UsageA compliment among friends (a total babe), but it can sound leering; avoid it at work and in formal writing.

    Similarhottie, looker, stunner, knockout

    Note

    This slang rates looks, and it arrived in the twentieth century, long after the infant meaning.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The attractive-person slang meaning arose in the twentieth century, later than the infant meaning. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 3
    infantnounliterarycountable
    An infant or baby; more broadly, any human or animal in its earliest stage of life.

    She rocked the sleeping babe in her arms until dawn.

    In spring the ewes stood guard over their newborn babes.

    UsageIn everyday speech say baby; babe on its own tends to sound like a term of endearment.

    Similarbaby, infant, newborn

    Note

    The word's first meaning has been in English since the fourteenth century and may go back to an Old English word for a boy or child. Today it lives in poetry and storytelling, tender and slightly old-fashioned: when he was but a babe, or James Thomson's sweet babes and loving wife (1874).

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • The infant meaning dates to the fourteenth century. en.wiktionary.org
    • The word may derive from a reconstructed Old English word meaning boy or child. en.wiktionary.org
    • James Thomson wrote the exact words “sweet babes and loving wife” in The City of Dreadful Night. gutenberg.org
    • The poem containing the quotation was first published in 1874. files.broadviewpress.com

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Origin

Middle English babe was a variant of the earlier baban, which perhaps came from Old English *baba ("boy, child"). Behind that lie Proto-West Germanic *babō and Proto-Germanic *babô, a reduplicated form of *ba-, *bō-, which referred to a father, brother or close male relation. Old Frisian bobba ("child") is related, but beyond that the origin is obscure. Compare mama, dada and papa.