child

[ chahyld ]

/ tʃaɪld /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR child ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural chil·dren.

a person between birth and full growth; a boy or girl: books for children.

a son or daughter: All my children are married.

a baby or infant.

a human fetus.

a childish person: He's such a child about money.

a descendant: a child of an ancient breed.

any person or thing regarded as the product or result of particular agencies, influences, etc.: Abstract art is a child of the 20th century.

a person regarded as conditioned or marked by a given circumstance, situation, etc.: a child of poverty; a child of famine.

British Dialect Archaic. a female infant.

Archaic. childe.

Nearby words

Idioms

with child, pregnant: She's with child.

Origin of child

before 950; Middle English; Old English cild; akin to Gothic kilthai womb

Related formschild·less, adjectivechild·less·ness, noun

Definition for child (2 of 2)

Child

[ chahyld ]

/ tʃaɪld /

noun

Julia,1912–2004, U.S. gourmet cook, author, and television personality.

Lydia Maria (Francis),1802–80, U.S. author, abolitionist, and social reformer.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for child

Sands was involved in a scandalous-for-the-time romance with the carpenter and there were rumors she was pregnant with his child.
New York’s Most Tragic Ghost Loves Minimalist Swedish Fashion|Nina Strochlic|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
In Sweden parents can use those days up until the child turns 12.
How Good Dads Can Change the World|Gary Barker, PhD, Michael Kaufman|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents.
Thank Congress, Not LBJ for Great Society|Julian Zelizer, Scott Porch|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
It needs to be said: bigotry in the name of religion is still bigotry; child abuse wrapped in a Bible verse is still child abuse.
Dear Leelah, We Will Fight On For You: A Letter to a Dead Trans Teen|Parker Molloy|January 1, 2015|DAILY BEAST

At least one child in CAR has been killed or gravely injured per day, and 10,000 have been recruited into militant groups.
The Year’s Most Forgotten Humanitarian Crisis|Nina Strochlic|January 1, 2015|DAILY BEAST
That child was as truly an object of reverence to us as any patient sufferer of mature age.
Household Education|Harriet Martineau
The mother's mood may be read at a glance: she is showing in one of a thousand tender ways her motherly affection for her child.
The Madonna in Art|Estelle M. Hurll
The cancer of the cheek in the parent becomes cancer of the bone in the child.
A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I|Various
Without looking up, or changing his tone, he asked the child if she had had a fall since the cast had been changed.
An American Suffragette|Isaac N. Stevens
You have fifteen rum-shops to meet before you get back to your wife and child.
A Singular Life|Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

British Dictionary definitions for child

child

/ (tʃaɪld) /

noun plural children

a boy or girl between birth and puberty
(as modifier)child labour

a baby or infant

an unborn babyRelated prefix: paedo-

with child another term for pregnant

a human offspring; a son or daughterRelated adjective: filial

a childish or immature person

a member of a family or tribe; descendanta child of Israel

a person or thing regarded as the product of an influence or environmenta child of nature

Midland English and Western English dialect a female infant

Derived Formschildless, adjectivechildlessness, nounchildly, adjective

Word Origin for child

Old English cild; related to Gothic kilthei womb, Sanskrit jathara belly, jartu womb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for child

child

Old English cild "fetus, infant, unborn or newly born person," from Proto-Germanic *kiltham (cf. Gothic kilþei "womb," inkilþo "pregnant;" Danish kuld "children of the same marriage;" Old Swedish kulder "litter;" Old English cildhama "womb," lit. "child-home"); no certain cognates outside Germanic. "App[arently] originally always used in relation to the mother as the 'fruit of the womb'" [Buck]. Also in late Old English, "a youth of gentle birth" (archaic, usually written childe). In 16c.-17c. especially "girl child."

The wider sense "young person before the onset of puberty" developed in late Old English. Phrase with child "pregnant" (late 12c.) retains the original sense. The sense extension from "infant" to "child" also is found in French enfant, Latin infans. Meaning "one's own child; offspring of parents" is from late 12c. (the Old English word was bearn; see bairn). Figurative use from late 14c. Most Indo-European languages use the same word for "a child" and "one's child," though there are exceptions (e.g. Latin liberi/pueri).

The difficulty with the plural began in Old English, where the nominative plural was at first cild, identical with the singular, then c.975 a plural form cildru (genitive cildra) arose, probably for clarity's sake, only to be re-pluraled late 12c. as children, which is thus a double plural. Middle English plural cildre survives in Lancashire dialect childer and in Childermas.

Child abuse is attested by 1963; child-molester from 1950. Child care is from 1915. Child's play, figurative of something easy, is in Chaucer (late 14c.).

Medicine definitions for child

child

[ chīld ]

n.

A person who has not yet reached puberty.

A son or daughter; an offspring.

A person not of legal age; a minor.

Idioms and Phrases with child

child

In addition to the idiom beginning with child

, also see

second childhood

child

noun, plural chil·dren.

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RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Idioms

Origin of child

Definition for child (2 of 2)

Child

noun

Examples from the Web for child

British Dictionary definitions for child

child

noun plural children

Word Origin for child

Word Origin and History for child

child

Medicine definitions for child

child

n.

Idioms and Phrases with child

child