foundling
(ˈfaʊndlɪŋ)
Forms: 4 fynd(e)ling, 4–8 fondling, 4–6 -elyng, 4–6 found(e)lyng, (4 -eling), 4–5 fund(e)ling, -lyng, 4, 6 foundling.
[ME. fundeling (= Du. vondeling, MHG. vundelinc), f. funden, pa. pple. of find v. + -ling; ME. had also findling (= Ger. findling), f. the pres. stem of the vb. Cf. also ME. funding.]
1. A deserted infant whose parents are unknown, a child whom there is no one to claim. Also transf.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter lxvii[i]. 5 (Horstm.) Of fadre of foundlinges ma. c 1305 Judas 56 in E.E.P. (1862) 108 So þat þe quene vpbreid adai: þat he fyndling was. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 182/2 Fundelynge, as he þat ys fowndyn, and noman wote ho ys hys fadur, ne hys modyr. 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Phil. iii. 5, I am an Israelite, not by engraffynge, but by kyndred: not a straunge foundlyng, but a Jewe, beynge borne of the Jewes. 1602 Withals Dict. 271/1 A childe which is laid and found in the streete..or else⁓where, which they call commonly a foundling. 1735 Berkeley Querist §372 Whether there should not be erected..an hospital for orphans and foundlings, at the expense of old bachelors? 1789 G. White Selborne xliv. 113, I myself have seen these foundlings in their nest displaying a strange ferocity of nature. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xxxix, He roared again until the very foundlings near at hand were startled in their beds. |
| appositively. a 1712 King Ulysses & Tiresias 25 Tho' he a foundling bastard be. a 1853 Robertson Serm. Ser. iv. xxiii. (1876) 250 The discovery of a foundling orphan. |
b. fig.| 1587 Golding De Mornay Pref. 8 As for lying or vntruth, it is a foundling, and not a thing bred. 1827–38 Hare Guesses (1867) 210 Employ such words as have the largest families, keeping clear of foundlings and of those of which nobody can tell whence they come unless he happens to be a scholar. 1853 Trench Proverbs 39 The great majority of proverbs are foundlings, the happier foundlings of a nation's wit, which [etc.]. |
2. the Foundling: the Foundling Hospital, London.
| 1829 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 123 It would be as wise to recommend wolves for nurses at the Foundling, on the credit of Romulus and Remus. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
foundling-hospital,
† -house, an institution for the reception of foundlings;
foundling-stone, an erratic boulder.
| 1756 Nugent Gr. Tour, France IV. 39 The enfants trouvés, or *foundling-hospital. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 166 The Crêches of Paris, or the foundling hospital of Dublin. |
| 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 12 ¶6 What, you never heard of the *Foundling House? |
| 1892 Edin. Rev. Apr. 305 *‘Foundling-stones’ innumerable have become objects of popular superstition and scientific curiosity. |