foster
verb (used with object)
to promote the growth or development of; further; encourage.
foster
1 American
[faw-ster, fos-ter]
/ ˈfɔ stər, ˈfɒs tər /
verb (used with object)
-
fosters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fostered,
past participle, past
-
fostering
present participle
-
to promote the growth or development of; further; encourage.
to foster new ideas.
- Antonyms:
- discourage
-
to care for a foster child or a pet as a temporary guardian.
The couple fostered two boys until they could be reunited with their birth parents.
Have you ever fostered a kitten that you just couldn’t part from afterwards?
-
to care for or cherish.
-
British. to place (a child) in a foster home.
-
Obsolete. to feed or nourish.
Foster
2
American
[faw-ster, fos-ter]
/ ˈfɔ stər, ˈfɒs tər /
noun
-
Stephen (Collins), 1826–64, U.S. songwriter.
-
William Z(ebulon) 1881–1961, U.S. labor organizer: leader in the Communist Party.
-
a male given name.
foster
1
British
/ ˈfɒstə /
verb
-
to promote the growth or development of
-
to bring up (a child, etc); rear
-
to cherish (a plan, hope, etc) in one's mind
-
-
to place (a child) in the care of foster parents
-
to bring up under fosterage
-
adjective
-
(in combination) indicating relationship through fostering and not through birth
foster mother
foster child
-
(in combination) of or involved in the rearing of a child by persons other than his natural or adopted parents
foster home
Foster
2
British
/ ˈfɒstə /
noun
-
Jodie . born 1962, US film actress and director: her films include Taxi Driver (1976), The Accused (1988), The Silence of the Lambs (1990), Little Man Tate (1991; also directed), Nell (1995), and Panic Room (2002)
-
Norman , Baron. born 1935, British architect. His works include the Willis Faber building (1978) in Ipswich, Stansted Airport, Essex (1991), Chek Lap Kok Airport, Hong Kong (1998), the renovation of the Reichstag, Berlin (1999), and City Hall, London (2002)
-
Stephen Collins . 1826–64, US composer of songs such as The Old Folks at Home and Oh Susanna
Synonym Usage
See cherish.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
fostersimple
-
fosterssimple
-
have fosteredperfect
-
has fosteredperfect
-
am fosteringprogressive
-
are fosteringprogressive
-
is fosteringprogressive
-
have been fosteringperfect progressive
-
has been fosteringperfect progressive
Past
-
fosteredsimple
-
had fosteredperfect
-
was fosteringprogressive
-
were fosteringprogressive
-
had been fosteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of foster
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English fōstor “nourishment,” fōstrian “to nourish”; cognate with Old Norse fōstr; akin to food
Explanation
To foster is to nurture something. A teacher could foster creativity by providing crayons to every student. You can also foster a child, which means the child lives in your home for a time. You may have seen photos of a cat taking care of a baby rabbit, or a pig nursing a litter of puppies: those are little foster families. Foster can be a verb (to foster someone or something) or an adjective used to describe a foster family, child, or parent. The word is from the Old English fostrian meaning "to supply with food, nourish, support," which sounds like what those mama hogs were doing. Unlike adopt, foster has a time limit.
Vocabulary lists containing foster
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It's All in the Family
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Now living in the North of England, the 28-year-old was adopted as a baby and spent time in foster care as a teenager.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
The Kerr boys entered the foster system soon afterward, eventually landing in the care of a woman named Lisa McCarthy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Neighborhood residents Herman Johnson and Laura Lacy told KTLA-TV that Babers is their foster daughter and the baby their grandchild.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Work-requirement exemptions for some groups — including certain homeless people, veterans and young adults formerly in foster care — were removed.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 26, 2026
Though he was raised by an impoverished working-class couple—his foster father was a glazier—it turns out that his birth father was a general and his mother was an aristocrat.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Bill Pay itself was extremely meta and self-aware, a post-postmodern pageant that would have given David Foster Wallace an aneurysm.
From Slate ● Oct. 1, 2026
Foster: I’ve never seen it in person until now.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
Foster bought high-end watches and cars with his share of the proceeds while many victims told NTS investigators they had been left financially and emotionally devastated, and felt humiliated and betrayed.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
And there are dynamic comic strips by masters of the genre, such as Hal Foster, Hergé, George Herriman and Winsor McCay.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
I knew no story stranger than that of Foster.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Along with giving tweens and teens something to look forward to, recess encourages movement, builds social confidence, and fosters a sense of community, which are all vital to healthy development.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026
The British political system "fosters the eccentricity, the wonderment and the humour of politics", he added.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
The boot camp fosters an environment where students feel comfortable failing, said Saint Juste, 20, who will attend Kennesaw State University in the fall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
Bain, who lives in Cheshire and fosters children of varying ages, finds it tricky to keep them "motivated and entertained" for six weeks given their differing interests.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
The discussion of experience/experiment claims that the English vocabulary fosters empiricism, while the French vocabulary is at odds with it; this would also seem to be true in this case.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The cordial relationship Mamdani has fostered with the Trump administration also seemed at risk of unraveling.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
These sanitized accounts ignored the homemade dangers, such as the health problems fostered by an overstretched military — realities many children would face when a changed parent finally came home.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
It was all the more jarring because elsewhere Nordqvist had unmistakably fostered that famed European spirit which so often permeates through Solheim and Ryder Cup successes.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
Sepulveda was a foster parent and fostered approximately 90 children over the years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Mrs. Ortiz often fostered infants, so she spent many hours bottle-feeding them.
From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
His passion for fostering the community was inspiring and sticks with me.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
The report sees AI as a serious threat, and leans into the notion of fostering human-centered judgment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
Sam's reunion comes after Foster Wales launched a pilot across 37 schools in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot in May, with the aim of connecting local authority fostering services directly with schools.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Many advocates and researchers believe recess helps relieve the stress young people face while also fostering learning, creativity, resilience, leadership, and conflict-resolution skills.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026
One of the ways of fostering creativity is to encourage students’ improvisation.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
