قحب

قَحْبٌ ذ an inf. n. of 1 [q. v.]. (ISd, K.) -A2- And Attacked by coughing; (AZ, O, K;) applied in this sense to an old man. (O.) ― -b2- And, applied to a man, and so قَحْبَةٌ applied to a woman, Who coughs much, and is extremely aged, or old and infirm: or [simply] who coughs much, whether or not extremely aged or old and infirm. (TA.) ― -b3- The former signifies also Advanced in age; (O, K;) applied to an elder; like قَحْرٌ and قَحْمٌ: (O:) and the latter, aged, or extremely aged, or old and infirm, applied to a woman; (T, O, K, TA;) like قَحْمَةٌ: (T, TA:) and advanced in age as applied to a ewe or she-goat (T, ISd, TA) and other kind of animal: (ISd, TA:) and the people of El-Yemen thus name a woman advanced in age: (T, TA:) or they thus name a woman; and they say, لَا تَثِقْ بِقَوْلِ قَحْبَةٍ [ Confide not thou in the saying of a woman ]. (A, TA.) ― -b4- And the former, (A,) or the latter, (IDrd, O, K,) In a corrupt, or disordered, state of the interior of the body, (IDrd, A, O, K,) by reason of disease (دَاآء), (IDrd, O, K,) or by reason of medicine (دُوَاآء [app. a mistranscription for دَاآء]). (So in a copy of the A.) ― -b5- And قَحْبَةٌ signifies also A prostitute, or fornicatress: (IDrd, T, ISd, O, Msb, K, TA:) accord. to IDrd, from the same word in the sense next preceding; (O, Msb;) but the Arabs knew not this appellation: (O:) or because, in the Time of Ignorance, the prostitute used to give permission to those who desired her by her coughing; (Az, TA;) or because she makes a sign by coughing, or by making a reiterated hemming in her throat: (ISd, Msb, K, TA:) or, (K, TA,) accord. to J (Msb, TA) and others, (TA,) it is post-classical: (S, O, Msb, K, TA:) but Ibn-Hilál says, in the Kitáb es-Siná'ateyn, that it is a proper [not a tropical] appellation of her who makes gain by prostitution: (TA:) the pl. is قِحَابٌ, like كِلَابٌ pl. of كَلْبَةٌ. (Msb.)