foster

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɒstə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔstɚ/
• (Canada, cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈfɑstɚ/

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• Rhymes: -ɒstə(ɹ)

From Middle English foster, from Old English fōstor (“food, sustenance”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōstr, from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą (“nourishment, 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”).

foster (not comparable)

1. Providing parental care to children not related to oneself.

   foster parents

2. Receiving such care.

   a foster child

3. Related by such care.

   We are a foster family.

foster (countable and uncountable, plural fosters)

1. (countable, informal) A foster parent.

   Some fosters end up adopting.

2. (uncountable) The care given to another; guardianship.

foster (third-person singular simple present fosters, present participle fostering, simple past and past participle fostered)

1. (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, [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.

2. (transitive) To promote the development of something; to cultivate and grow a thing.

   Our company fosters an appreciation for the arts.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto VIII, page 10:

     ⁠A flower beat with rain and wind,
     Which once she foster’d up with care

   • 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC:

     And Time, which is the hound of Sish, devoured all things; and Sish sent up the ivy and fostered weeds, and dust fell from the hand of Sish and covered stately things.

   • 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.

3. (transitive) To nurse or cherish something.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To be nurtured or trained up together.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     There Florimell, in her first ages flowre,
     And passing beautie did eftsoones reveale,
     Was fostered by those Graces

Modern English makes a distinction between fostering (which is implied to be temporary or informal) and adopting (which is permanent and makes the child legally recognized as part of the family). In older usage the two terms were more interchangeable.

• (antonym(s) of “cultivate and grow”): hamper

foster (plural fosters)

1. (obsolete) A forester.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     A griesly Foster forth did rush.

• Forest, Forets, Fortes, fetors, forest, forset, fortes, fortés, froste, softer

From Old Norse fóstr (“rear, raise”), from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą.

foster n (singular definite fostret or fosteret, plural indefinite fostre)

1. fetus

• fostre, voster
• (Early ME) fostær
• (hypercorrect) forster

Inherited from Old English fōster, from Proto-West Germanic *fōstr, from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą; reinforced by Old English fōstre (“fosterer”). The vocalism is due to regular shortening before a three-consonant cluster (in the Old English oblique stem fōstr-).

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɔstər/, /ˈfɔstrə/

foster (plural *fostres)

1. A child; one of one's progeny.
2. (chiefly Early Middle English) Food or other care.
3. (rare) A foster child or adopted child.
4. (rare) A foster parent or adoptee.

• fosterbroder
• fosterfader
• fostermoder
• fostren

• English: foster
• Scots: foster

• “foster, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “forstē̆r, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

foster

1. Alternative form of forester

foster

1. Alternative form of fostren

From Old Norse fóstr.

foster n (definite singular fosteret or fostret, indefinite plural foster or fostre, definite plural fostra or fostrene)

1. (biology) a fetus or foetus

• fostervann

• embryo

• “foster” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse fóstr.

foster n (definite singular fosteret, indefinite plural foster, definite plural fostera)

1. (biology) a fetus or foetus

• embryo

• “foster” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfoːs.ter/

fōster n

1. Alternative form of fōstor

From Old Norse fóstr (“rear, raise”), from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą.

• IPA^(key): /fʊstɛr/

foster n

1. fetus

• fosterbror
• fosterfördrivning
• fosterhem
• fostersyster
• fostra