stepchild
(ˈstɛptʃaɪld)
[OE. stéopcild: see step-. Cf. OHG. stiufchint (MHG. stiefkint, mod.G. -kind).]
† 1. An orphan. Obs.
| 971 Blickl. Hom. 45 Þonne sæᵹde Sanctus Paulus þæt se biscop nære miltsiende wydewum, ne steopcildum, ne nanum Godes þearfan. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John xiv. 18 Ne læte ic eow steopcild. a 1300 E.E. Psalter xciii. 6 Widow and comeling slogh þai, And stepchildre þai drape al dai. |
2. A stepson or stepdaughter.
| c 1350 Will. Palerne 131 Þan studied sche stifly, as step⁓moderes wol alle, To do dernly a despit to here stepchilderen. 1631 [see stepfather]. 1868 L. H. Morgan Syst. Consanguinity (1870) 482 Their children by other wives would be my step-children. 1889 S. Walpole Ld. John Russell I. xiii. 340 Lord John went down with his children and step⁓children to Buckhurst. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1407–10 Hoccleve Min. Poems (1892) 58 Let me no step⁓chyld been for I am he That hope haue in yow, confort & gladnesse. c 1450 Lovelich Grail xlviii. 385 Whiles that ȝe to God diden take, thanne was he to ȝow fadyr ful kynde..and sethen that stepchildren that ȝe ben, he hath ȝow forȝeten ful Clen. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. V. 266 It parts good friends, the step-child [sc. the young cuckoo] seldom offering any violence to its nurse. 1911 Q. Rev. Jan. 150 The navy has been the step-child of both parliaments. |