Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🌱 To encourage 🏠 Not birth parent 👶 To care for
to foster

to foster

18 3.7
To care for a child who is not your own, often by formal arrangement
  • verb
  • /ˈfɔstər/
translation icon : acoger
  • The organization helps families learn how to foster children in need and provide them with a loving home.
  • foster children

And he lived a very simple life, never married, fostered a kid who he took in.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • The ninth child was a girl who was fostered by an unrelated couple in a neighboring parish.

    Academic text (1993)

  • So I could end up in Child Services and foster care?

    Healed by Grace (2012)

  • And if you foster with someone who only had you to worry about--

    Legend of The Roller Blade Seven (1993)

  • And then we can pair you with some kids that you can foster until they become adoptable.

    Instant Family (2018)

  • Johannes was their seventh child, and he was fostered by his uncle from birth.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The surviving Children are being bussed to Hemingford, 1 9 miles away, where they'll be fostered until permanent arrangements are made.

    Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992)

  • She decided to foster a baby girl who had been abandoned at the hospital.

  • After careful consideration, they chose to foster two siblings to keep them together.

Synonyms

to bring up
vsto foster
129 2.5

Care for and teach a child until they become an adult

focuses on caring for a nonbiological child under a formal arrangement
to parent
vsto foster
22 2.0

To raise and care for a child until they become an adult

applies to caring for a child not born to the caregiver under formal arrangement

Antonyms

to abandon
773 3.1

Leave someone or something behind permanently and without care

neglect
100 3.5

Not caring for someone or something that needs care

Compounds

foster care
77 2.6

Temporary care in another home for children who cannot live with their parents

foster home
68 2.6

A home where a child lives when their parents cannot care for them

foster parent
42 3.2

A person who cares for a child instead of the child's parents without adopting them

foster child
19 3.0

A young person raised by people who are not their birth or adoptive parents

foster family
14 3.5

A family that cares for a child who is not their own for a time when the parents cannot

foster mother
14 3.0

A woman who cares for a child who is not her own

foster father
5 3.2

A man who cares for and raises a child when the parents cannot

foster brother
4 3.6

A boy or man who your parents raise in your family though not born to them

foster son
2 3.4

A boy or man raised by a family that is not his birth family

foster-parent
1 3.5

A person who cares for a child temporarily in their home but is not the child's legal or birth parent

foster daughter
1 3.3

A girl or young woman who lives with people who are not her birth parents and is not adopted

foster sister
1 3.5

A girl or woman not related by birth who your parents raise as part of the family

foster care
1 3.0

Temporary care in a home for animals waiting for adoption

foster-brother
1 4.3

A boy or man who is not a blood relative but is raised as part of your family

foster-child
1 3.4

A child who lives with people who are not their birth parents

foster-mother
3.4

A woman who cares for a child who is not her own

foster-nurse
8.1

A woman who raises another woman's child as her own

foster-sister
5.1

A girl or woman raised by your family who is not related by blood

foster-son
3.5

A boy or young man raised and cared for by people who are not his birth parents

foster-daughter
4.1

A girl or young woman raised as a daughter but not related by birth

foster-father
3.5

A man who looks after a child who is not his own

How Permanent

to adopt
502 2.2
to raise
∞ 1.4
to foster
18 3.7
to care for
347 1.0
to look after
472 1.1

Surface Forms

foster infinitive
fostered past
fostered past participle
fostering present participle
fosters third person singular

Etymology

Foster comes from an old English word fost meaning 'to nourish' or 'feed'. A foster parent is like someone who gives care and food to a child they did not give birth to, so they help the child grow and become healthy.