foundling hospital

noun

1. an institutional home for foundlings.

Word History and Origins

Origin of foundling hospital¹

First recorded in 1750–60

Example Sentences

This was the case even with the presence of foundling hospitals, where women could safely abandon babies.

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Eighteenth-century parents adopted Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ideas about “natural” parenting—cold air is good for a child!—even though he’d left all five of his children at a foundling hospital.

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In this case, our heroine was a feisty little girl, and the place she longed to escape was a foundling hospital in Victorian England.

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He rented babies from foundling hospitals for photo shoots and personal appearances, and the crowds went crazy.

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She is sent off to the foundling hospital, where she is scolded harshly by fierce matrons and mocked for her bright red hair.

Read more on The Guardian