Definition of "egg"

(countable, zoology)

1. An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.  quotations

   Quotations

   • The Eſtrich (whoſe fethers are fayrer thẽ ye wynges of the ſparow hauke) whẽ he hath layd his egges vpon the grounde, he bredeth them in the duſt, and forgetteth them: ſo that they might be troden with feete, or broken with ſomme wilde beaſt.

     1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg: Eucharius Cervicornus and J. Soter?], Job xxxix:[13–15], folio xi, recto, column 2

   • [T]hinke him as a Serpents egge, / VVhich hatch'd, vvould as his kinde grovv mischieuous; / And kill him in the ſhell.

     1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i], page 114, column 1

   • An egg properly is that, out of a part vvhereof a living creature is produced, and the reſidue is meat for it, improperly that is an egg out of the vvhole vvhereof, a living creature is bred, as the eggs of Spiders, Ants, Flies.

     1657, Samuel Purchas, “Of the Generation of Bees”, in A Theatre of Politicall Flying-Insects. […], London: […] R. I. for Thomas Parkhurst, […], pages 47–48

   • [T]here is one claſs of quadrupeds that ſeems entirely left to chance, […] Theſe are the quadrupeds that are brought forth from the egg, ſuch as the lizard, the tortoiſe, and the crocodile. […] [T]he numerous brood of eggs are, vvithout farther ſolicitude, buried in the vvarm ſands of the ſhore, and the heat of the ſun alone is left to bring them to perfection.

     1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Quadrupeds in General, Compared to Man”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume II, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], pages 311–312

   • The egg is, as we have said, a kind of exposed uterus, and place in which the embryo is fashioned: for it performs the office of the uterus and enfolds the chick until the due time of its exclusion arrive, when the creature is born perfect.A translation of a passage from Harvey’s Exercitationes de generatione animalium (1651).

     1847, William Harvey, “Anatomical Exercises on the Generation of Animals; to which are Added, Essays on Parturition; on the Membranes, and Fluids of the Uterus; and on Conception. [On Animal Generation. Exercise the Twenty-third: Of the Exclusion of the Chick, or the Birth from the Egg.]”, in Robert Willis, transl., The Works of William Harvey, M.D., London: […] Sydenham Society, page 264

   1. (specifically, countable) The edible egg (sense 1.1) of a domestic fowl such as a duck, goose, or, especially, a chicken; (uncountable) the contents of such an egg or eggs used as food.  quotations  examples

      Quotations

      • There after the images and reliques were orderly disposed, the great Priest compassed about with divers pictures according to the fashion of the Ægyptians, did dedicate and consecrate with certaine prayers a fair ship made very cunningly, and purified the same with a torch, an egge, and sulphur; […]

        1566, Apuleius, “The Eleventh Booke”, in William Adlington, transl., The Golden Ass of Apuleius Translated out of Latin […], London: David Nutt […], published 1893, page 239

      • [T]hey are vp already, and cal for Egges and butter, they vvil avvay preſently.

        c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, [Act II, scene i]

      • I was 5 moneth in France before I saw a boyled or roasted egge.

        1665–1667, John Lauder; Lord Fountainhall, “Journal in France 1665–1667”, in Donald Crawford, editor, Journals of Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall, with His Observations on Public Affairs and Other Memoranda 1665–1676 […] (Publications of the Scottish History Society; XXXVI), Edinburgh: […] University Press by T[homas] and A[rchibald] Constable for the Scottish History Society, published May 1900, page 52

      • Eggs are perhaps the higheſt, moſt nouriſhing and exalted of all animal Food, and moſt indigeſtible, becauſe no body can take and digeſt the ſame Quantity of them as of other Food.

        1732, John Arbuthnot, “Practical Rules of Diet in the Various Constitutions and Diseases of Human Bodies. Chapter I. Of the Different Qualities and Effects of Alimentary Substances.”, in An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments, and the Choice of Them, According to the Different Constitutions of Human Bodies. […], 3rd edition, London: […] J[acob] Tonson […], published 1735, page 261

      • A round, black, shining face is hers, so glossy as to suggest the idea that she might have washed over with white of eggs, like one of her own tea rusks.

        1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “An Evening in Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume I, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, page 39

   2. (by extension, countable) A food item shaped to resemble an egg (sense 1.1.1), such as a chocolate egg.  examples

2. (also cytology) Synonym of ovum (“the female gamete of an animal”); an egg cell.  quotations

   Quotations

   • In the Fall into the division of labor, [Claude] Lévi-Strauss sees the great hunters trading women to create the exogamous bonds of one hunting band with another. The egg is, but the sperm does. The tiny sperm may be furious in its activity, but its highway to the egg is paved by the alkaline trail set down by the Great Mother.

     1981, William Irwin Thompson, “Hominization”, in The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture (A Lindisfarne Series Book), New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, part 2 (The Transformations of Prehistory), page 80

   • Although they serve the same function across the plant, animal and fungal kingdoms, sperm and eggs vary wildly in their structure and biochemistry, even among closely related species. […] Many genes that determine sperm and egg structure and biochemistry are rapidly evolving, constantly changing the chemical environment necessary for the sperm to bind to the egg.

     2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 3, New Haven, Conn.: Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, archived from the original on 22 April 2013, abstract, page 210

(countable) A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).  quotations

1. A swelling on one's head, usually large or noticeable, resulting from an injury.  examples

2. (architecture) Chiefly in egg and dart: an ornamental oval moulding alternating in a row with dart or triangular shapes.  examples

3. (chiefly sports) A score of zero; specifically (cricket), a batter's failure to score; a duck egg or duck's egg.  examples

4. (military, dated) A bomb or mine.

(countable, figuratively)

1. Senses relating to people.

   1. (informal, dated) A person; a fellow.  quotations  examples

      Quotations

      • 'Good egg!' quoth Moorshed, and brought his hand down on the wide shoulders with the smack of a beaver's tail.

        1903, Rudyard Kipling, “‘Their Lawful Occasions’—Part II”, in Traffics and Discoveries, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1904, page 138

      • Walter. The woman we passed as we came in just now. Is it his wife? / Cokeson. No, no relation. [Restraining what in jollier circumstances would have been a wink] A married person, though. […] James. A real bad egg.

        1910 February, John Galsworthy, Justice: A Tragedy in Four Acts, London: Duckworth and Co. […], published March 1910, Act I, page 15

      • "She isn't going to sue me for breach of promise?" / "She never had any intention of doing so." / The Honorable Freddie sank back on the pillows. / "Good egg!" he said with fervor. He beamed happily. "This," he observed, "is a bit of all right."

        1915 September 3, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter XI, in Something New, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, page 326

      • They tell me at Timothy's […] that Dartie has gone off at last. That'll be a relief to your father. He was a rotten egg.

        1920, John Galsworthy, “On Forsyte ’Change”, in In Chancery, London: William Heinemann, part I, page 100

      • Some big, hard-boiled egg meets up with a pretty face, and bingo! He cracks up and melts.

        1932, Edgar Wallace, Merian C[aldwell] Cooper, novelization by Delos W[heeler] Lovelace, chapter 4, in King Kong, trade softcover edition, Nevada City, Calif.: Underwood Books, published 2005, page 29

      • "She's a tough egg." / "She must be, if she slung your brother Joe out."

        1937 July 24 – September 11, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter I, in Summer Moonshine, 1st UK edition, London: Herbert Jenkins […], published 1938, page 18

      • Up close he looked like a pretty tough egg. His hair was bristling up in the back in spite of what smelled like a whole bottle of Wildroot Creme Oil and he had the flat, oddly shiny eyes that some deep-sea fish have.

        1980, Stephen King, “The Wedding Gig”, in Skeleton Crew (A Signet Book), New York, N.Y.: New American Library, published June 1986, page 259

   2. (derogatory, ethnic slur, rare) A white person considered to be overly infatuated with East Asia.

   3. (Internet slang, derogatory, dated) A user of the microblogging service Twitter identified by the default avatar (historically an image of an egg (sense 1.1.1)) rather than a custom image; hence, a newbie or noob.

   4. (transgender slang) A person regarded as having not yet realized they are transgender, who has not yet come out as transgender, or who is in the early stages of transitioning; also, one's lack of awareness that one is transgender.  quotations

      Quotations

      • That fits, though, she thought. Wear the same outfit day after day, your brain gets numb to how it looks or feels—Wendy shut the album. No. […] She hated analyzing the whys of [not-out] trans girls. She had always hated it, and she hated how easy it had become; the bottomless hole of egg mode.

        2018, Casey Plett, edited by Susan Safyan, Little Fish, Vancouver, B.C.: Arsenal Pulp Press, page 24

      • So I remember being told, in the very early part of my transition, that I had been, until now, an egg, and—as powerfully rooted in a belief in latency as I found myself[.]

        2020, Grace Lavery, “Egg Theory's Early Style”, in Transgender Studies Quarterly, page 384

   5. (New Zealand, derogatory) A foolish or obnoxious person.  examples

   6. (derogatory, obsolete) A young person.  quotations

      Quotations

      • VVhat you Egge? / Yong fry of Treachery?

        c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene ii], page 145, column 2

2. (archaic) Something regarded as containing a (usually bad) thing at an early stage.  quotations

   Quotations

   • [S]oe Power of Warre / From the firſt Egge of Libertie, out-Creepes / A fatall Serpent; […]

     a. 1658 (date written), George Daniel, “Trinarchodia. The Raigne of Henry the Fourth.”, in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Poems of George Daniel, Esq. of Beswick, Yorkshire. (1616–1657) from the Original MSS. in the British Museum: Hitherto Unprinted. […], volume IV, [Boston, Lincolnshire: […] [Robert Roberts] for private circulation only, published 1878, stanza 348, page 88

   • In ſhort, the Rebellion had been Cruſh'd in the Egg; and One Seaſonable Act of Rigour, had Sav'd the King, the Monarchy, the Church, and the Three Kingdoms.

     1683 June 5 (Gregorian calendar), Roger L’Estrange, “The State of the City of London, in the Late Rebellion. […]”, in The Observator, in Dialogue, volume I, number 345, London: […] J. Bennet, for William Abington, […], page , column 1

3. (computing) One of the blocks of data injected into a program's address space for use by certain forms of shellcode, such as "omelettes".  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • This approach would be altered for an optimal omelette based exploit. One would spray the heap with the omelette code solely, then load a single copy of the additional shellcode eggs into memory outside the target region for the spray.

     2015, Charles Smutz, Angelos Stavrou, “Preventing Exploits in Microsoft Office Documents through Content Randomization”, in Herbert Bos, Fabian Monrose, Gregory Blanc, editors, Research in Attacks, Intrusions, and Defenses: 18th International Symposium, RAID 2015, Kyoto, Japan, November 2–4, 2015: Proceedings (LNCS; 9404; Sublibrary SL4 (Security and Cryptology)), Cham, Switzerland, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemburg: Springer International Publishing, page 241

(transitive)

1. To throw (especially rotten) eggs (noun sense 1.1.1) at (someone or something).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Like I said before in that chapter, after that ultimate egging, Gay-D didn't mention anything about eggs again, but he meekly ask for us to stop egging Xander's door so that he wouldn't get blamed.

     2013 February, M. Golding, “Framing”, in How to Piss Off a Crappy Roommate: From A to Z, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu, page 89

2. To inadvertently or intentionally distort (the circular cross-section of something, such as tube) to an elliptical or oval shape.  examples

3. (cooking) To coat (a food ingredient) with or dip (a food ingredient) in beaten egg (noun sense 1.1.1) during the process of preparing a dish.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • "Jemima, Jemima!—ve'll ha'e the viting biled instead of fried." "Ca'n't, marm," replied Jemima, "they be all hegged and crumbed, with their tails in their mouths."]

     , chapter I, in Peter Simple. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], published 1834, page 8

   • Then mask another large piece with currant jelly, cover it as before, and after egging the edges, roll them over some coarse sugar, and put them immediately in the oven. Join the remaining pieces in the same manner, two and two, and after egging the edges as before, roll them alternately on pistachios and coarse sugar.

     1834, M[arie-]A[ntoine] Carême, edited by John Porter, The Royal Parisian Pastrycook and Confectioner: […], London: F. J. Mason, […], page 163

(intransitive) To collect the eggs (noun sense 1.1) of wild birds.  examples

(transitive, obsolete except in egg on) To encourage, incite, or urge (someone).  quotations