foster
Contents
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English foster, from Old English fōstor (“food, sustenance”), from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą (“nurishment, food”). Cognate with Middle Dutch voester (“nursemaid”), Middle Low German vôster (“food”), Old Norse fóstr (“nurturing, education, alimony, child support”), Danish foster (“fetus”), Swedish foster (“fetus”).
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈfɒstə/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈfɔstɚ/, /ˈfɑstɚ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɒstə(ɹ)
AdjectiveEdit
foster (not comparable)
- Providing parental care to unrelated children.
- Foster parents.
- Receiving such care.
- Foster child.
- Related by such care.
- We are a foster family.
TranslationsEdit
NounEdit
foster (countable and uncountable, plural fosters)
- (countable, obsolete) A forester
- (uncountable) The care given to another; guardianship
VerbEdit
foster (third-person singular simple present fosters, present participle fostering, simple past and past participle fostered)
- (transitive) To nurture or bring up offspring, or to provide similar parental care to an unrelated child.
- c. 1588–1593, [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: As It was Plaide by the Right Honourable the Earle of Darbie, Earle of Pembrooke, and Earle of Sussex Their Seruants (the First Quarto), London: Printed by Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, at the little North doore of Paules at the signe of the Gunne, published 1594, OCLC 222241046, [Act II, scene iii]:
- Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The whilſt their owne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittiful.
- (transitive) To cultivate and grow something.
- Our company fosters an appreciation for the arts.
- 2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ‘Sacha Baron Cohen’s vital, venomous action movie’”, in The Daily Telegraph (London):
- Grimsby doesn't ever wound quite as devastatingly as Borat or Brüno, but it's a vital, lavish, venomously profane two fingers up at Benefits Street pity porn and the social division it fosters.
- (transitive) To nurse or cherish something.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To be nurtured or trained up together.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)
AntonymsEdit
- (cultivate and grow): hinder
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
AnagramsEdit
DanishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Norse fóstr (“rear, raise”)
NounEdit
foster n (singular definite fostret or fosteret, plural indefinite fostre)
InflectionEdit
Norwegian BokmålEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
foster n (definite singular fosteret or fostret, indefinite plural foster or fostre, definite plural fostra or fostrene)
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “foster” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian NynorskEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
foster n (definite singular fosteret, indefinite plural foster, definite plural fostera)
Related termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “foster” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.