Category:Egg

Egg, n. Etym: [OE., fr. Icel. egg; akin to AS. æg (whence OE. ey), Sw. ägg, Dan. æg, G. & D. ei, and prob. to OSlav. aje, jaje, L. ovum, Gr. ugh, Gael. ubh, and perh. to L. avis bird. Cf. Oval.]

1. (Popularly)

Defn: The oval or roundish body laid by domestic poultry and other birds, tortoises, etc. It consists of a yolk, usually surrounded by the "white" or albumen, and enclosed in a shell or strong membrane. See:Eggs

2. (Biol.)

Defn: A simple cell, from the development of which the young of animals are formed; ovum; germ cell.

3. Anything resembling an egg in form.

Note: Egg is used adjectively, or as the first part of self- explaining compounds; as, egg beater or egg-beater, egg case, egg ladle, egg-shaped, etc. Egg and anchor (Arch.), an egg-shaped ornament, alternating with another in the form of a dart, used to enrich the ovolo; -- called also egg and dart, and egg and tongue. See Anchor, n., 5. Ogilvie. -- Egg cleavage (Biol.), a process of cleavage or segmentation, by which the egg undergoes endogenous division with formation of a mass of nearly similar cells, from the growth and differentiation of which the new organism is ultimately formed. See Segmentation of the ovum, under Segmentation. -- Egg development (Biol.), the process of the development of an egg, by which the embryo is formed. -- Egg mite (Zoöl.), any mite which devours the eggs of insects, as Nothrus ovivorus, which destroys those of the canker worm. -- Egg parasite (Zoöl.), any small hymenopterous insect, which, in the larval stage, lives within the eggs of other insects. Many genera and species are known.

egg Egg, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Egged; p. pr. & vb. n. Egging.] Etym: [OE. eggen, Icel. eggja, fr. egg edge. Edge.]

Defn: To urge on; to instigate; to incite Adam and Eve he egged to ill. Piers Plowman. [She] did egg him on to tell How fair she was. Warner.

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

Egg - (Heb. beytsah, "whiteness"). Eggs deserted (Isaiah 10:14), of a bird (Deuteronomy 22:6), an ostrich (Job 39:14), the cockatrice (Isaiah 59:5). In Luke 11:12, an egg is contrasted with a scorpion, which is said to be very like an egg in its appearance, so much so as to be with difficulty at times distinguished from it. In Job 6:6 ("the white of an egg") the word for egg (hallamuth) occurs nowhere else. It has been translated "purslain" (R.V. marg.), and the whole phrase "purslain-broth", i.e., broth made of that herb, proverbial for its insipidity; and hence an insipid discourse. Job applies this expression to the speech of Eliphaz as being insipid and dull. But the common rendering, "the white of an egg", may be satisfactorily maintained.