The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Berth \Berth\ (b[~e]rth), n. [From the root of bear to produce,
   like birth nativity. See Birth.] [Also written birth.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. (Naut.)
      (a) Convenient sea room.
      (b) A room in which a number of the officers or ship's
          company mess and reside.
      (c) The place where a ship lies when she is at anchor, or
          at a wharf.
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   2. An allotted place; an appointment; situation or
      employment. "He has a good berth." --Totten.
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   3. A place in a ship to sleep in; a long box or shelf on the
      side of a cabin or stateroom, or of a railway car, for
      sleeping in.
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   Berth deck, the deck next below the lower gun deck. --Ham.
      Nav. Encyc.

   To give (the land or any object) a wide berth, to keep at
      a distance from it.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Birth \Birth\ (b[~e]rth), n. [OE. burth, birth, AS. beor[eth],
   gebyrd, fr. beran to bear, bring forth; akin to D. geboorte,
   OHG. burt, giburt, G. geburt, Icel. bur[eth]r, Skr. bhrti
   bearing, supporting; cf. Ir. & Gael. beirthe born, brought
   forth. [root]92. See 1st Bear, and cf. Berth.]
   1. The act or fact of coming into life, or of being born; --
      generally applied to human beings; as, the birth of a son.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Lineage; extraction; descent; sometimes, high birth; noble
      extraction.
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            Elected without reference to birth, but solely for
            qualifications.                       --Prescott.
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   3. The condition to which a person is born; natural state or
      position; inherited disposition or tendency.
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            A foe by birth to Troy's unhappy name. --Dryden.
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   4. The act of bringing forth; as, she had two children at a
      birth. "At her next birth." --Milton.
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   5. That which is born; that which is produced, whether animal
      or vegetable.
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            Poets are far rarer births than kings. --B. Jonson.
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            Others hatch their eggs and tend the birth till it
            is able to shift for itself.          --Addison.
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   6. Origin; beginning; as, the birth of an empire.
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   New birth (Theol.), regeneration, or the commencement of a
      religious life.
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   Syn: Parentage; extraction; lineage; race; family.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Birth \Birth\, n.
   See Berth. [Obs.] --De Foe.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

birth
    n 1: the time when something begins (especially life); "they
         divorced after the birth of the child"; "his election
         signaled the birth of a new age" [ant: death, demise,
         dying]
    2: the event of being born; "they celebrated the birth of their
       first child" [syn: birth, nativity, nascency,
       nascence] [ant: death, decease, expiry]
    3: the process of giving birth [syn: parturition, birth,
       giving birth, birthing]
    4: the kinship relation of an offspring to the parents [syn:
       parentage, birth]
    5: a baby born; an offspring; "the overall rate of incidence of
       Down's syndrome is one in every 800 births"
    v 1: cause to be born; "My wife had twins yesterday!" [syn:
         give birth, deliver, bear, birth, have]

The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

BIRTH, n.  The first and direst of all disasters.  As to the nature of
it there appears to be no uniformity.  Castor and Pollux were born
from the egg.  Pallas came out of a skull.  Galatea was once a block
of stone.  Peresilis, who wrote in the tenth century, avers that he
grew up out of the ground where a priest had spilled holy water.  It
is known that Arimaxus was derived from a hole in the earth, made by a
stroke of lightning.  Leucomedon was the son of a cavern in Mount
Aetna, and I have myself seen a man come out of a wine cellar.