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foundling hospital

American  

noun

  1. an institutional home for foundlings.


Etymology

Origin of foundling hospital

First recorded in 1750–60

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:

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.

From The New Yorker May 27, 2019

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

From New York Times Sep. 7, 2015

The youth discovers his child in a foundling hospital and steals it; he is pursued by the daughter of a boardinghouse keeper and also by his fiancee.

From Time Magazine Archive

Be fore he died in 1639, Brother Martin had established an orphanage and foundling hospital.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Then you do not think of putting her in a foundling hospital or a workhouse, nephew, as you proposed last night?" said Mrs. Margaret, with a smile.

From Shanty the Blacksmith; a Tale of Other Times by Sherwood, Mrs. (Mary Martha)

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