foster
//ˈfɒs.tə//
formalForms
- Plural
- fosters
- present (v1)
- foster
- past (v2)
- fostered
- past participle (v3)
- fostered
- present participle
- fostering
- 3rd person singular
- fosters
Definitions
1.Providing parental care to children not related to oneself.
2.Receiving such care.
3.Related by such care.
- We are a foster family.
1.The care given to another; guardianship.
2.A foster parent.(informal)
- Some fosters end up adopting.
1.To nurture or bring up offspring, or to provide similar parental care to an unrelated child.
2.To promote the development of something; to cultivate and grow a thing.
- Our company fosters an appreciation for the arts.
- And Time, which is the hound of Sish, devoured all things; and Sish sent up the ivy and fostered weeds, and dust fell from the hand of Sish and covered stately things.
- Grimsby doesn't ever wound quite as devastatingly as Borat or Brüno, but it's a vital, lavish, venomously profane two fingers up at Benefits Street pity porn and the social division it fosters.
3.To nurse or cherish something.
Frequency
Overall
Rare· #4967
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Rare
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English foster, from Old English fōstor (“food, sustenance”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōstr, from Proto-Germanic *fōstrą (“nourishment, food”).