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foster home

foster home

68 2.6
A home where a child lives when their parents cannot care for them
  • noun
  • /ˈfɔstər hoʊm/
translation icon : hogar de acogida
  • After her parents could no longer care for her, she moved to a foster home where she felt safe and supported.
  • foster home caregiver
  • foster home residents
  • therapeutic foster home

Funding is available when a child is placed in a foster home with strangers.

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Examples

  • Traditionally, social workers have played a key role in the supervision of foster homes.

    Academic text (2008)
  • As opposed to those in institutional settings, residents in foster homes can count on a family environment and human affection.

    Academic text (2008)
  • - Hi, I grew up in 12 different foster homes.

  • We were in the same foster home together for a year.

  • I live in a foster home.

  • The kids were raised, by the way, in foster homes.

  • From one foster home to another.

  • I had been living in foster homes since I was about two.

    Academic text (1991)
  • Hundreds of children were taken from their birth families and placed in white foster homes.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • They put me in a foster home.

Synonyms

foster care
vsfoster home
77 2.6

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

is a specific household placement arranged by social service agencies rather than a broad system
foster family
vsfoster home
14 3.5

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

is arranged by social service agencies rather than by a private family

How Home-Like

family
1.0
foster home
68 2.6
playgroup
3 1.0
institution
478 3.9

Surface Forms

foster home singular
foster homes plural

Morphology

foster + home

The meaning 'a home where a child is cared for by non-biological caregivers' is directly derivable from combining 'foster' (relating to nonbiological caregiving) with 'home' (a residence or place providing care). This adjectival + noun composition is transparent and common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Foster home combines foster, which means 'to help or raise', and home, a place you live, giving a clear image: a house where people look after a child who cannot live with their birth parents. That's why foster home means a home set up to care for such a child.