fruit of one's loins

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

fruit of one's loins (plural fruit of one's loins or fruits of one's loins)

1. (chiefly literary, idiomatic) One's child or, collectively, one's children or descendants.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 2:29-30:

     Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David . . . being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.

   • 1889, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 6, in Micah Clarke:

     "Come into the yard with me, Micah," quoth my father. ". . . [I]f I am old and worn, there is the fruit of my loins to stand in my place and to wield the same sword in the same cause. You shall go in my place, Micah."

   • c. 1950, Kay Boyle, “Adam's Death”, in Fifty Stories, 1992 edition, →ISBN, page 541:

     And behind the mare, or beside her, or else cavorting ahead, came a slim black colt, the fruit of her loins, without bridle or rope.

Synonyms

• issue, offspring, progeny