limb

Plurallimbs

Formslimbs, limbing, limbed

1. 1
   arm or legnouncountable

   A major appendage of the body, such as an arm, leg, or wing, used for movement.

   Surgeons worked through the night to save the injured limb.

   The newborn giraffe stood up on its long, shaky limbs within an hour.

   UsageSet phrase: risk life and limb, meaning risk death or serious injury.

   Similarappendage, extremity

2. 2
   big tree branchnouncountable

   A main branch of a tree, growing out from the trunk.

   The arborist sawed off a dead limb hanging over the house.

   Strong winds tore several limbs from the elm overnight.

   Similarbough

   Note

   Not a recent metaphor borrowed from the body. Old English lim already meant both "limb" and "branch," and its Germanic ancestor meant "branch, limb" as well. Bough is the close synonym. Limb leans toward a main branch growing from the trunk, the kind an arborist saws off, and it sits naturally beside the body sense when trees are described as if they had arms. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Old English lim meant both a bodily limb and a branch. en.wiktionary.org
   • The Germanic ancestor is reconstructed with both meanings. en.wiktionary.org
3. 3
   part of groupnouncountable

   A person or thing regarded as a part or member of, or attachment to, something larger.

   The new agency operates as a limb of the federal government.

   Critics dismissed the newspaper as a mere limb of the ruling party.

   Similarbranch, arm, wing, offshoot

   Note

   The figurative member belongs to a larger body: an agency can be a limb of government, a newspaper a limb of the party. Walter Scott's Waverley (1814) has "that little limb of the devil," the turn of phrase behind the scolding word for a child. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Walter Scott wrote Waverley. gutenberg.org
   • Waverley was first published in 1814. walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk
   • The quoted words occur in Waverley, spoken by Colonel Talbot. gutenberg.org
   • The scolding noun for a child derives from the expression limb of the devil or limb of Satan. en.wiktionary.org
4. 4
   bow (archery)nouncountable

   The part of a bow extending from the handle to the tip.

   She replaced the worn limb on her recurve bow before the tournament.

   Both limbs flex to store energy when the string is drawn back.

   Note

   Every bow has two of them, an upper and a lower, reaching out from the central grip or riser to the tips, where the string is anchored or, on a compound bow, the cams turn. The limbs are the working part: they bend as the string is drawn, store the energy, and release it into the arrow. On a takedown recurve bow a worn limb can be swapped out without replacing the whole bow.

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