The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Pronunciation \Pro*nun`ci*a"tion\ (?; 277), n. [F.
   pronunciation, L. pronunciatio. See Pronounce.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. The act of uttering with articulation; the act of giving
      the proper sound and accent; utterance; as, the
      pronunciation of syllables of words; distinct or
      indistinct pronunciation.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The mode of uttering words or sentences.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Rhet.) The art of manner of uttering a discourse publicly
      with propriety and gracefulness; -- now called delivery.
      --J. Q. Adams.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Delivery \De*liv"er*y\, n.; pl. Deliveries.
   1. The act of delivering from restraint; rescue; release;
      liberation; as, the delivery of a captive from his
      dungeon.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The act of delivering up or over; surrender; transfer of
      the body or substance of a thing; distribution; as, the
      delivery of a fort, of hostages, of a criminal, of goods,
      of letters.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. The act or style of utterance; manner of speaking; as, a
      good delivery; a clear delivery.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. The act of giving birth; parturition; the expulsion or
      extraction of a fetus and its membranes.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. The act of exerting one's strength or limbs.
      [1913 Webster]

            Neater limbs and freer delivery.      --Sir H.
                                                  Wotton.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. The act or manner of delivering a ball; as, the pitcher
      has a swift delivery.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

delivery
    n 1: the act of delivering or distributing something (as goods
         or mail); "his reluctant delivery of bad news" [syn:
         delivery, bringing]
    2: the event of giving birth; "she had a difficult delivery"
    3: your characteristic style or manner of expressing yourself
       orally; "his manner of speaking was quite abrupt"; "her
       speech was barren of southernisms"; "I detected a slight
       accent in his speech" [syn: manner of speaking, speech,
       delivery]
    4: the voluntary transfer of something (title or possession)
       from one party to another [syn: delivery, livery, legal
       transfer]
    5: (baseball) the act of throwing a baseball by a pitcher to a
       batter [syn: pitch, delivery]
    6: recovery or preservation from loss or danger; "work is the
       deliverance of mankind"; "a surgeon's job is the saving of
       lives" [syn: rescue, deliverance, delivery, saving]
    7: the act of delivering a child [syn: delivery, obstetrical
       delivery]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

176 Moby Thesaurus words for "delivery":
   Emancipation Proclamation, abalienation, accommodation, accordance,
   accouchement, affranchisement, alienation, amortization,
   amortizement, articulation, assignation, assignment, attack, award,
   awarding, bargain and sale, barter, bearing, bequeathal, bestowal,
   bestowment, birth, birth throes, birthing, blessed event, break,
   breakout, cession, childbearing, childbed, childbirth,
   communication, concession, conduction, conferment, conferral,
   confinement, consignation, consignment, contagion, contribution,
   convection, conveyance, conveyancing, deeding, deliverance, demise,
   deportation, diapedesis, diffusion, disenthrallment, disposal,
   disposition, dissemination, distribution, donation, emancipation,
   emergence, endowment, enfeoffment, enfranchisement, enunciation,
   escape, escapism, evasion, exchange, execution, export,
   exportation, expression, expulsion, extradition, extrication,
   flight, freeing, furnishment, gay liberation, genesis, getaway,
   gifting, giving, giving birth, grant, granting, hatching,
   having a baby, impartation, impartment, import, importation,
   interchange, investiture, issuance, issue, jailbreak, labor, leak,
   leakage, lease and release, liberality, liberation, lifesaving,
   manumission, metastasis, metathesis, metempsychosis, migration,
   multiparity, mutual transfer, nascency, nativity, offer, osmosis,
   outlet, parturition, passage, passing over, performance, perfusion,
   phonation, presentation, presentment, prisonbreak, pronunciation,
   provision, ransom, recovery, redemption, release, rescue,
   retrieval, riddance, sale, salvage, salvation, saving,
   setting at liberty, setting-free, settlement, settling, spread,
   spreading, subscription, supplying, surrender, the Nativity,
   the stork, trading, transduction, transfer, transfer of property,
   transference, transfusion, transit, transition, translation,
   translocation, transmigration, transmigration of souls,
   transmission, transmittal, transmittance, transplacement,
   transplantation, transport, transportation, transposal,
   transposition, travail, travel, utterance, vent, vesting,
   vocalization, voicing, vouchsafement



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

DELIVERY, conveyancing. The transferring of a deed from the grantor to the
grantee, in such a manner as to deprive him of the right to recall it; Dev.
Eq. R. 14 or the delivery may be made and accepted by an attorney. This is
indispensably necessary to the validity of a deed; 9 Shepl. 569 2 Harring.
197; 16 Verm. 563; except it be the deed of a corporation, which, however,
must be executed under their common seal. Watkin's Prin. Con. 300. But
although, as a general rule, the delivery of a deed is essential to its
perfection, it is never averred in pleading. 1 Wms. Saund. Rep. 291, note
Arch. Dig. of Civ. Pl. 138.
     2. As to the form, the delivery may be by words without acts; as, if
the deed be lying upon a table, and the grantor says to the grantee, "take
that as my deed," it will be a sufficient delivery; or it may be by acts
without words, and therefore a dumb man may deliver a deed. Co. Litt. 36 a,
note; 6 Sim. Rep. 31; Gresl. Eq. Ev. 120; Wood. B. 2, c. 3; 6 Miss. R. 326;
5 Shepl. 391; 11 Verm. 621; 6 Watts & S. 329; 23 Wend. 43; 3 Hill, 513; 2
Barr, 191, 193 2 Ev. Poth. 165-6.
     3. A delivery may be either absolute, Is when it is delivered to the
grantor himself; or it may be conditional, that is, to a third person to
keep until some condition shall have been performed by the grantee, and then
it is called an escrow. (q.v.) See 2 Bl. Com. 306 4 Kent. Coin. 446 2 Bouv.
Inst. n. 2018, et seq.; Cruise, Dig. tit. 32, c. 2, s. 87; 5 Serg. & Rawle,
523; 8 Watts, R. 1; and articles Assent; Deed.
     4. The formula, "I deliver this as my act and deed," which means the
actual delivery of the deed by the grantor into the hands or for the use of
the grantee, is incongruous, not to say absurd, when applied to deeds which
cannot in their nature be delivered to any person; as deeds of revocation,
appointment, &c., under a power where uses to unborn children and the like,
if in fact such instruments, though sealed, can be properly called deeds, i.
e. writings sealed and delivered. Ritson's Practical Points, 146.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

DELIVERY, contracts. The transmitting the possession of a thing from one
person into the power and possession of another.
     2. Originally, delivery was a clear and unequivocal act of giving
possession, accomplished by placing the subject to be transferred in the
hands of the buyer or his avowed agent, or in their respective warehouses,
vessels, carts, and the like. This delivery was properly considered as the
true badge of transferred property, as importing full evidence of consent to
transfer; preventing the appearance of possession in the transferrer from
continuing the credit of property unduly; and avoiding uncertainty and risk
in the title of the acquirer.
     3. The complicated transactions of modern trade, however, render
impossible a strict adherence to this simple rule. It often happens that the
purchaser of a commodity cannot take immediate possession and receive the
delivery. The bulk of the goods; their peculiar situation, as when they are
deposited in public custody for duties, or in the hands of a manufacturer
for the purpose of having some operation of his art performed upon them, to
fit them for the market the distance they are from the house; the frequency
of bargains concluded by correspondence between distant countries, and many
other obstructions, frequently render it impracticable to give or to receive
actual delivery. In these and such like cases, something short of actual
delivery has been considered sufficient to transfer the property.
     4. In sales, gifts, and other contracts, where the party intends to
transfer the property, the delivery must be made with the intent to enable
the receiver to obtain dominion over it. 3 Serg. & Rawle, 20; 4 Rawle, 260;
5 Serg. & Rawle, 275 9 John. 337. The delivery may be actual, by putting the
thing sold in the hands or possession of the purchaser; or it may be
symbolical, as where a man buys goods which are in a room, the receipt of
the keys will be sufficient. 1 Yeates, 529; 5 Johns. R. 335; 1 East, R.
192.; 3 Bos. & Pull. 233; 10 Mass. 308; 6 Watts & Serg. 94. As to what will
amount to a delivery of goods and merchandise, vide 1 Holt, 18; 4 Mass. 661;
8 Mass. 287; 14 Johns. R. 167; 15 Johns. R. 849; 1 Taunt. R. 318 H. Black.
R. 316, 504; 1 New R. 69; 6 East, R. 614.
     5. There is sometimes considerable difficulty in ascertaining the
particular period when the property in the goods sold passes from the vendor
to the vendee; and what facts amount to an actual delivery of the goods.
Certain rules have been established, and the difficulty is to apply the
facts of the case.
     6.-1. Where goods are sold, if nothing remains to be done on the part
of the seller as between him and the buyer, before the article is to be
deliver-ed, the property has passed. East, R. 614; 4 Mass. 661; 8 Mass. 287
14 Johns. 167; 15 Johns. 349; 1 Holt's R. 18; 3 Eng. C. L. r. 9.
     7.-2. Where a chattel is made to order, the property therein is not
vested in the quasi vendee, until finished and delivered, though he has paid
for it. 1 Taunt. 318.
     8.-3. The criterion to determine whether there has been a delivery on
a sale, is to consider whether the vendor still retains, in that character,
a right over. the property. 2 H. Blackst, R. 316.
     9.-4. Where a part of the goods sold by an entire contract, has been
taken possession of by the vendee, that shall be deemed a taking possession
of the whole. 2 H. Bl. R. 504; 1 New Rep. 69. Such partial delivery is not a
delivery of the whole, so as to vest in the vendee the entire property in
the whole, where some act, other than the payment of the price, is necessary
to be performed in order to vest the property. 6 East, R. 614.
    10.-5. Where goods are sent by order to a carrier the carrier receives
them as the vendee's agent. Cowp. 294; 3 Bos. & Pull. 582; 2 N. R. 119.
    11.-6. A delivery may be made in a very slight manner; as where one
buys goods which are in a room, the receipt of the key is sufficient. 1
Yeates, 529; 5 Johns. 335; 1 East, R. 192. See, also, 3. B. & P. 233 7 East,
Rep. 558; 1 Camp. 235.
    12.-7. The vendor. of bulky articles is not bound to, deliver them,
unless he stipulated to do so; be must give notice to the buyer that he is
ready to deliver them. 5 Serg. & Rawle, 19; 12. Mass. 300; 4 Shepl. Rep. 49;
and see 3 Johns. 399; 13 Johns. 294; 19 Johns. 218; 1 Dall. 171.
    13.-8. A sale of bricks in a brickyard, accompanied with a lease of
the yard until the bricks should be sold and removed, was held to be valid
against the creditors of the vendor, without an actual removal. 10 Mass.
308.
    14.-9. Where goods were contracted to be sold upon condition that the
vendee should give security for the price, and they are delivered without
security being given, but with the declaration on the part of the vendor
that the transaction should not be deemed a sale, until the security should
be furnished; it was held that the goods remained the property of the
vendor, notwithstanding the delivery. But it seems that in such cases the
goods would be liable for the debts of, the vendee's creditors, originating
after the delivery; and that the vendee may, for a bona fide consideration,
sell the goods while in his possession. 4 Mass. 405.
    15.-10. Where goods are sold to be paid for on delivery, if, on
delivery, the vendee refuses to pay for them, the property is not divested
from the vendor. 13 Johns. 434; 1 Yeates, 529.
    16.-11. If the vendor rely on the promises of the vendee to perform
the conditions of the sale, and deliver the goods accordingly, the right of
property. is changed; but where, performance and delivery are understood to
be simultaneous, possession, obtained by artifice, will not vest a title in
the vendee. 3 Serg. & Rawle, 20.
    17.-12. Where, on the sale of a chattel, the purchase money is paid,
the property is vested in the vendee, and if he permit it to remain in the
custody of the vendor, he cannot call upon the latter for any subsequent
loss or deterioration not arising from negligence. 2 Johns. 13; 2 Caines, R.
38 3 Jolins. 394.
    18. In order to make a good donatio mortis causa, it is requisite that
there should be a delivery of the subject to or for the donee, where such
delivery can be made. 3 Binn. R. 370; 1 Miles, Rep. 109, 110; 2 Ves. Jr.
120; 9 Ves. Jr. 1.
    19. The delivery of the key of the place where bulky goods are
deposited, is, however, a sufficient delivery of such goods. 2 Ves. Sen.
445. Vide 3 P. Wms. 357; 2 Bro. C. C. 612; 4 Barn. & A. 1; 3 Barn. & C. 45
Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t. See Sale; Stoppage in transitu; Tender; and Domat,
Lois Civiles, Liv. 1, tit. 2, s. 2 Harr. Dig. Sale, II. 3.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

DELIVERY, child-birth, med. jur. The act of a woman giving birth to her
offspring.
     2. It is frequently of great importance to ascertain whether or not a
delivery has taken place, and the time when it took place. Delivery may be
considered with regard, 1. To pretended delivery. 2. To concealed delivery
and, 3. To the usual signs of delivery.
     3.-1. In pretended delivery, the female declares herself to be a
mother, without being so in reality; an act always prompted by folly or
fraud.
     4. Pretended delivery may present itself in three points of view, 1.
When the female who feigns has never been pregnant. When thoroughly
investigated, this may always be detected. There are signs which must be
present, and cannot be feigned. An enlargement of the orifice of the uterus,
and a tumefaction of the organs of generation, should always be present, and
if absent, are conclusive against the' fact. Annales d'Hygiene, tome ii. p.
227. 2. When the pretended pregnancy and delivery have been preceded by one
or more deliveries. In this case, attention should be given to the following
circumstances: the mystery, if any, which has been affected with regard to
the situation of the female; her age; that of her husband and particularly
whether aged or decrepit. 3. When the woman has been actually delivered, and
substitutes a living for a dead child. But little evidence can be obtained
on this subject from a physical examination.
     5.-2. Concealed delivery generally takes place when the woman either
has destroyed her offspring, or it was born dead. In suspected cases, the
following circumstances should be attended to: 1. The proofs of pregnancy
which arise in consequence of the examination of the mother. When she has
been pregnant, and has been delivered, the usual signs of delivery,
mentioned below, will be present. A careful investigation as to the woman's
appearance, before and since the delivery, will have some weight, though
such evidence is not always to be relied upon, as such appearances are not
unfrequently deceptive. 2. The proofs of recent delivery. 3. The connexion
between the supposed state of parturition, and the state of the child that
is found; for if the age of the child do not correspond to that time, it
will be a strong circumstance in favor of the mother's innocence. A redness
of the shin and an attachment of the umbilical cord to the navel, indicate a
recent birth. Whether the child was living at its birth, belongs to the
subject of infanticide. (q.v.)
     6.-3. The usual signs of delivery are very well collected in Beck's
excellent treatise on Medical Jurisprudence, and are here extracted: If the
female be examined within three or four days after the occurrence of
delivery, the following circumstances will generally be observed: greater or
less weakness, a slight paleness of the face, the eye a little sunken, and
surrounded by a purplish or dark brown colored ring, and a whiteness of the
skin, like a person convalescing from disease. The belly is soft, the skin
of the abdomen is lax, lies in folds, and is traversed in various directions
by shining reddish and whitish lines, which especially extend from the
groins and pubis to the naval. These lines have sometimes been termed
linecae albicantes, and are particularly observed near the umbilical region,
where the abdomen has experienced the greatest distention. The breasts
become tumid and hard, and on pressure emit a fluid, which at first is
serous, and afterwards gradually becomes whiter; and the presence of this
secretion is generally accompanied with a full pulse and soft skin, covered
with a moisture of a peculiar and somewhat acid odor. The areolae round the
nipples are dark colored. The external genital organs and vagina are dilated
and tumefied throughout the whole of their extent, from the pressure of the
foetus. The uterus may be felt through the abdominal parietes, voluminous,
firm, and globular, and rising nearly as high as the umbilicus. Its orifice
is soft and tumid, and dilated so as to admit two or more fingers. The
fourchette; or anterior margin of the perinaeum, is sometimes torn, or it is
lax, and appears to have suffered considerable distention. A discharge
(termed the lochial) commences from the uterus, which is distinguished from
the menses by its pale color, its peculiar and well-known smell, and its
duration. The lochia are at first of a red color, and gradually become
lighter until they cease.
     7. These signs may generally be relied upon as indicating the state of
pregnancy, yet it requires much experience in order not to be deceived by
appearances.
     8.-1. The lochial discharge might be mistaken for menstruation, or
fluor albus, were it not for its peculiar smell; and this it has been found
impossible, by any artifice, to destroy.
     9.-2. Relaxation of the soft parts arises as frequently from
menstruation as from delivery; but in these cases the os uteri and vagina
are not so much tumefied, nor is there that tenderness and swelling. The
parts are found pale and flabby, when all signs of contusion disappear,
after delivery; and this circumstance does not follow menstruation.
    10.-3. The presence of milk, though a usual sign of delivery, is not
always to be relied upon, for this secretion may take place independent of
pregnancy.
    11.-4. The wrinkles and relaxations of the abdomen which follow
delivery, may be the consequence of dropsy, or of lankness following great
obesity. This state of the parts is also seldom striking after the birth of
the first child, as they shortly resume their natural state. Vide,
generally, 1 Beck's Med. Jur. c. 7, p. 206; 1 Chit. Med. Jur. 411; Ryan's
Med. Jur. ch. 10, p. 133; 1 Briand, Med. Leg. lere partie, c. 5.