babe in arms

1. An infant. (Based on the fact that an infant is typically carried in an adult's arms). Let me see that precious babe in arms! Is that Saul and Alina's new babe in arms? Oh my goodness, what a cutie! How has your babe in arms been sleeping?

2. A person who is gullible, naïve, or lacks experience in a specific situation. Although Jane had always excelled in school, she felt like a babe in arms when she began attending college. Julia's a babe in arms, so I bet we can trick her into stealing the test answers for us. A babe in arms like you won't make it in such a cutthroat industry.

See also: arm, babe

babe in arms

1. Lit. a very young baby that is carried by an adult. I have known that since I was a babe in arms! A young mother with a babe in arms stood in line with the rest of the students.

2. Fig. an innocent or naive person. He's a babe in arms when it comes to taking girls out. Mary has no idea how to win the election. Politically she's a babe in arms.

See also: arm, babe

babe in arms

An infant, as in She's been a family friend since I was a babe in arms. Although the word "babe" for baby has been used since the 1300s, this phrase describing a child too young to walk (and hence having to be carried) dates only from about 1900.

See also: arm, babe

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

a babe in arms

mainly BRITISH

If you describe someone as a babe in arms, you mean that they are very young. The family have always cycled, and Chris has been going to races since he was a babe in arms. I first appeared on stage as a babe in arms, and my mother just assumed I would become an actor. Note: `Babe' is an old-fashioned word for a baby or small child.

See also: arm, babe

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

babe in arms

1 an innocent, inexperienced, or gullible person. 2 something very young or new.

2 2005 Lee Marshall Travel Intelligence Compared to the French Riviera – which is the Olduvai Gorge of Sunbathing Man – the Costa Smeralda is a babe in arms.

See also: arm, babe

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

a ˌbabe in ˈarms

(old-fashioned)
1 a very young baby not able to walk or crawl
2 a helpless, an inexperienced or an innocent person: He’s a babe in arms in financial matters.

See also: arm, babe

See also:

References in periodicals archive ?

Unfortunately I know the names of only a very few people who appear in these photographs, because I am the babe in arms on the extreme right of photo number one.

When the VE party came to our street

Babe in arms Stealing from his mother's purse To purchase the white powder That leads to the hearse

Your Poem Peddler of Death

Now a household name as Fair City's gangster moll, she began her career as a babe in arms in Ireland's second ever soap.

First role made me so nappy

Babe in arms Sarah holds her 10-week-old daughter, Lydia - and the pose which secured her place in the competition's semi-final