fosterer
(ˈfɒstərə(r))
[f. foster v. + -er1.]
1. One who nurses and brings up (a child); a nurse, foster-parent; esp. with reference to the custom of fosterage.
| 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 48 What sparkes they haue of inconstancie, they drawe from their female fosterers. 1612 Davies Why Ireland, etc. (1787) 135 In Ireland..they put away all their children to fosterers. 1747 W. Harris in Southey Comm.-Pl. Bk. Ser. ii. 362 If any love or faith is to be found among the Irish, you must look for it among the fosterers and their foster-children. a 1873 Lytton Pausanias 81 My fosterer, my saviour, my more than father. |
| fig. a 1571 Jewel On 1 Thess. (1611) 153 Peace..is the Nurse and fosterer of the Church of God. 1836 Lytton Athens (1837) II. 577 Fountains and Rivers and ye Trojan Plains, I loved ye as my fosterers. |
2. One who cherishes or cultivates (a plant, etc.).
| 1628 Prynne Love-lockes 27 All our Impudent, Ruffianly, and Shamelesse Love-locke fosterers. 1871 M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. II. vi. 167, I don't pretend to guess whether she prefers the fosterer of flowers or the smiter of steel. |
3. A patron, protector, favourer (of persons or things); one who, or something which, promotes or encourages the growth of (a feeling, an institution, etc.).
| 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 54 Dooth not knowledge of Law..being abused grow the crooked fosterer of horrible iniuries? 1586 J. Hooker Girald. Irel. in Holinshed II. 132/1 The most notable offenders and their fosterers. 1659 Rushw. Hist. Coll. I. 616 His Mother was a Recusant, and a fosterer of Recusants. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 819 Being found unfit..because he was a fosterer of faction, he resign'd. 1837 Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857) I. 210 The Arabians became the fosterers and patrons of philosophy. 1848 Lytton Harold iv. vii, His character, as the foe of all injustice and the fosterer of all that were desolate. |
4. Anglo-Irish. A foster-brother.
| 1735 Swift Lett. (1766) II. 217 When I had credit..at court, I provided for above fifty people..of which, not one was a relation. I have neither followers, nor fosterers, nor dependers. 1828 T. C. Croker Fairy Leg. II. 238 He has an eye on the farm this long time for a fosterer of his own. |