جوف

جَوْفٌ أجوف جوف [ A hollow; an interior empty, vacant, or void, space; ] a vacancy: pl. أَجْوَافٌ: this is the primary signification: then it was used in relation to a thing capable of being occupied and of being unoccupied; so as to be applied in the sense next following. (Msb.) ― -b2- The inside, or interior, (Msb, KL,) of a house [&c.]. (Msb.) ― -b3- [The midst, or middle, of a thing.] ― -b4- A low, or depressed, (S, K, TA,) and wide, (TA,) tract, or portion, of land, or ground: (S, K, TA:) what is wider than the شِعْب; the [ water-courses termed ] تِلَاع, and the valleys, flow into it; and it has جِرَفَة [or abrupt, water-worn, banks ]: sometimes it is wider than a valley, and deeper: and sometimes it is a plain, or soft, tract, that retains water: and sometimes it is completely round, so that it retains water: accord. to IAar, it signifies a valley: or, as some say, the interior (بَطْن) of a valley. (TA.) ― -b5- The belly, or abdomen, of a man: (S, K:) or, accord. to ISd, the interior of the belly: and the part upon which close the shoulder-blades and the upper arms and the ribs and the two flanks (الصُّقْلَانِ): (TA:) the chest, or thorax; i. e., the part of the body that is separated from the بَطْن [or belly, or abdomen, ] by the حِجَاب [or diaphragm, or midriff ]; containing the heart and its appertenances: (Zj in his “ Khalk el-Insán: ”) pl. as above. (TA.) See also جَائِفٌ. It is one of the words that are not used adverbially except with prepositions. (Sb, TA.) It is said in a trad., لَا تَنْسَوُا الجَوْفَ وَمَا وَعَى [ Forget not ye the جوف and what it hath collected ]; meaning what enters into it, of food and beverage: but some say that الجوف here means the belly and the فَرْج [or vulva, or pudendum muliebre ], together, which are also called ↓ الأَجْوَفَانِ: and some say that the meaning is, the heart and what it hath retained, and kept in memory, of the knowledge of God. (A 'Obeyd, TA.) ― -b6- الأَجْوَافُ is also applied by the people of El-Ghowr (K) and of El-Yemen (TA) to The tents (فَسَاطِيط) of their عُمَّال [or governors, or collectors of the poor-rates ]. (K.) ― -b7- جَوْفُ اللَّيْلِ الاآخِرُ, occurring in a trad., means (assumed tropical:) The last third of the night: [or] the fifth of the sixths of the night: (K:) not the half, as some assert. (TA.)