ˈfoster-father
[OE. fósterfæder, f. foster n.1 (also féster-: cf. related forms under foster n.2 and v.). Cf. ON. fóstrfaðir.]
a. One who performs the duty of a father to another's child. b. The husband of a nurse (esp. in Ireland and the Highlands).
| a 800 Corpus Gloss. 140 Altor, fostorfaeder. ? a 1000 Martyrol. (Cockayne) 62 He is ure festerfæder on Criste. c 1200 Ormin 8855 Annd till hiss fossterrfaderr ec He wass buhsumm & milde. 13.. Guy Warw. (A.) 169 Gij a forster fader hadde That him lerd and him radde. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Luke ii. 37 a, The chylde..beeyng vnder the guydyng of his mother, and his foster-father. 1622 Bacon Hen. VII Mor. & Hist. Wks. (Bohn) 342 The duke of Britain having been..a kind of parent or foster-father to the king. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 123 ¶5 Florio lived at the House of his Foster-father. 1848 Dickens Dombey ii, He motioned his child's foster-father to the door. |
| fig. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iv. 161 Esay..promiseth that kinges shalbe fosterfathers of y⊇ Chirch. a 1652 J. Smith Sel. Disc. iii. 51 Epicureans (who are not the true, but foster-fathers of that natural philosophy they brag of). |