foundling

American  

[found-ling] / ˈfaʊnd lɪŋ /

noun

1. an infant or small child found abandoned; a child without a known parent or guardian.

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foundling British  

/ ˈfaʊndlɪŋ /

noun

1. an abandoned infant whose parents are not known

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Etymology

Origin of foundling

First recorded in 1250–1300, foundling is from the Middle English word found(e)ling. See found ², -ling ¹

Example Sentences

He's still raising a Force-wielding foundling on “The Mandalorian” for however long Disney+ keeps that title character alive and little Grogu dependent on him.

From Salon • Apr. 21, 2025

We might hear an account of a foundling left on this particular doorstep, or perhaps the family that once lived here and was forced to flee or go into hiding.

From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2023

In his many and widely read novels, Dickens sympathetically depicted the hardscrabble lives of poor, working-class, and middle-class urban dwellers, setting scenes in foundling homes, prisons, impoverished neighborhoods, and dark city streets.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

An inconvenience to her selfish parents, Fox was dumped in a Manhattan foundling home right after her birth in 1923.

From New York Times • Jul. 13, 2022

It was a foundling who finally tamed the zeros and infinities in calculus and rid mathematics of its mysticism.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife