# foster

Pronunciation: US say "FAW-stur" /ˈfɔ.stɚ/; UK say "FOS-tuh" /ˈfɒs.tə/; AUS say "FAW-stuh" /ˈfɔs.tə/

## Verb

1. To promote the development of something, helping it grow and thrive.
   - Simple: To help something grow or develop over time.
   - _Good teachers foster a love of reading in their students._
   - _The grant program fostered new research across the department._
2. To rear young, or to give an unrelated child the kind of care a parent would.
   - Simple: To raise a child, especially one who is not your own by birth.
   - _The couple chose to foster a teenager whose parents could no longer cope._
   - _For decades they fostered children who needed a safe home._
6. To nurse something along or cherish it.
   - Simple: To care for something tenderly and hold it dear.
   - _He fostered a lifelong love of the sea._
   - _Small communities foster traditions that bind one generation to the next._

## Adjective

3. Providing parental care to a child who is not one's own relative.
   - Simple: Giving parental care to a child who is not related to you by birth.
   - _The foster family welcomed three new arrivals this spring._
   - _She trained for months before taking on her first foster placement._
4. Receiving parental care from someone who is not a birth relative.
   - Simple: Cared for by an adult who is not your birth parent.
   - _The foster child kept a photo of her first guardians on the shelf._
   - _As a foster youth, he learned to adapt to several households._
5. Related to others through fostering rather than by blood.
   - Simple: Connected to others by fostering rather than by birth.
   - _His foster sister inherited none of the estate, yet remained at his side._
   - _The two grew up as foster siblings under the same roof._

## Noun

7. Someone who acts as a parent to a child not biologically their own. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A person who takes care of a child who is not their own.
   - _The agency matched each child with an experienced foster within days._
   - _As a longtime foster, she had welcomed more than forty kids over the years._
8. Guardianship or care provided for another, especially a child or animal placed with a foster family.
   - Simple: The care and protection you give to someone you look after.
   - _With the shelter full, every new litter of puppies goes straight into foster with a volunteer family._
   - _As was usual for a family of their rank, the infant was put out to foster with a farmer's wife in the next valley._

## Noun

9. A person in charge of guarding and managing a forest; a forester. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A person who guards and looks after a forest.
   - _The foster fined any commoner caught felling timber without leave._
   - _At dawn the foster set out to mend the fences around the deer park._

## Verb

10. To be reared and trained together. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To grow up or be trained together with others.
   - _The young lords fostered together at court, sharing lessons and arms practice alike._
   - _Where heirs foster together from childhood, old rivalries often soften._

## Origin

From Middle English foster, from Old English fōstor ("food, sustenance"), going back to Proto-West Germanic *fōstr and Proto-Germanic *fōstrą ("nourishment, food"). It is related to Old Norse fóstr ("nurturing, upbringing") and the Danish and Swedish word foster ("fetus").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/foster (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).