ˈfoster-child
[OE. fóstercild, f. foster n.1]
A child as related to persons who have reared it as their own, or (esp. in Ireland and the Highlands) to its wet-nurse and her husband; a nursling.
| a 1200 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 538 Alumnus, fostercild. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. ii. 33, I avow, by this most sacred head Of my deare foster childe, to ease thy griefe. 1612 Davies Why Ireland, etc. (1787) 135 The foster-children do love, and are beloved of their foster-fathers. 1717 Addison Ovid's Met. iii. 346 The Goddess thus beguil'd, With pleasing Stories, her false Foster-child. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xxxiv, Torquil, who entertained for his foster-child even a double portion of that passionate fondness. |
| fig. 1820 Keats Ode on Grecian Urn 2 Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time. 1846 H. Rogers Ess. (1874) I. iv. 153 Leibnitz..[was] a foster-child of literature. |