جَوْفٌ
1.
[A hollow; an interior empty, vacant, or void, space;] a vacancy: plural 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.)
3.
[The midst, or middle, of a thing.]
4.
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: according to IAar, it signifies a valley: or, as some say, the interior (بَطْن) of a valley. (TA.)
5.
The belly, or abdomen, of a man: (S, K:) or, according 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: ”) plural as above. (TA.) See also جَايءِفٌ. It is one of the words that are not used adverbially except with prepositions. (Sb, TA.) It is said in a tradition, 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.)
6.
7.
جَوْفُ اللَّيْلِ
الاخِرُ, occurring in a tradition, 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.)