limbs

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of limb.

   Years of climbing had left scars across both of his limbs.

   The fallen tree's lower limbs blocked the entire trail.

   Note

   One regular plural covers every kind of limb: arms and legs, a tree's branches, the arms of a bow from handle to tip, and even the small working parts of a lock. Only context tells them apart. The same spelling also serves the verb's present-tense form, so "the trees' limbs" and "she limbs the trees" use one word in two different grammars.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of limb.

   After the chainsaw goes quiet, the crew leader limbs the trunk by hand.

   The machine limbs and bucks each log in a single continuous pass.

   Note

   A working verb that always takes an object. It names stripping a felled trunk of its branches or an animal of its limbs, and the -s ending marks a singular subject: the crew leader limbs the trunk. The same transitive form covers two rarer uses: supplying something with limbs, and thoroughly beating an opponent in a fistfight. It shares its spelling with the noun plural.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2