Obs. exc. in Comb. [OE. fóstor, str. neut. = ON. fóstr:—OTeut. *fôstrom, f. root *fôð- (see FOOD) + instrumental suffix -tro-.]
1. Food, nourishment.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 198. Sio is blodes timber, & blodes hus, & fostor.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 15. Vre licomes lust is te feondes foster.
Proverb.
a. 1420. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 60.
| Styntyng the cause, theffect styntethe eke; | |
| No lenger forster, no lenger lemman. |
1670. Ray, Prov., 94. No longer foster no longer friend.
2. Guardianship, keeping, fostering. At foster, at nurse with a foster-parent).
c. 1460. Towneley Myst. (Surtees), 320.
| Now shalle thai have rom in pyk and tar ever dwelland, | |
| Of thare sorow no some, bot ay to be yelland | |
| In oure fostre. |
1861. G. W. Dasent, Burnt Njal, II. 166. They had children out at foster there.
3. a. Offspring, progeny. b. One nourished or brought up; a foster-child, nursling. c. An animal of one’s own breeding.
a. a. 1175. Cott. Hom., 225. Ic ȝegaderi in-toðe of diercynne and of fuȝel cynne simle ȝemacan, þat hi eft to fostre bien.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 449.
| Ant ti semliche schape | |
| schaweð wel þæt tu art | |
| freo monne foster. |
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 257. For hit was þe forme-foster · þat þe folde bred.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VI. xv. 86.
| Ne neuer, certis, the ground of the Romanis | |
| Of ony foster sall hym so avance. |
b. c. 1205. Lay., 25921. Eleine min aȝen uoster.
1585. M. W., Commendat. Verses to Jas. I’s Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 10.
| Lo, heir the fructis, Nymphe, of thy foster faire, | |
| Lo heir (ô noble Ioue) thy will is done, | |
| Her charge compleit, as deid doth now declaire. |
c. 1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., 108. This … beast … is my leill, lawfull, and hamehalde cattell, or my inborne foister, the quhilk was thifteouslie stollen fra me.
4. attrib. and Comb., as foster-home, -milk, FOSTER-BROTHER, -SISTER; FOSTER-CHILD, -SON and synonymously foster-babe, -daughter. Also FOSTER-FATHER, -MOTHER and in the synonyms foster-dam, † -mame (Sc.), -parent, -sire; hence in sense of ‘acting as a foster-mother or nurse,’ foster-city, -earth.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. lxxxix.
| Thou dost;—but all thy *foster-babes are dead— | |
| The men of iron; and the world hath rear’d | |
| Cities from out their sepulchres: men bled | |
| In imitation of the things they fear’d. |
1618. Bolton, Florus, III. xviii. (1636), 228. When all Latium, and Picenum, all Etruria, and Campania, finally Italy, rose joyntly in armes against the mother and *foster City?
1697. Dryden, Æneid, VIII. 836.
| There, by the Wolf, were laid the Martial Twins. | |
| Intrepid on her swelling Dugs they hung; | |
| The *foster Dam loll’d out her fawning Tongue. |
c. 1616. Webster, Duch. Malfy, II. ii. Go, go, give your *foster-daughters good counsel: tell them, that the devil takes delight to hang at a woman’s girdle, like a false rusty watch, that she cannot discern how the time passes.
1708. J. Philips, Cyder, I. 9.
| The nursling Grove | |
| Seems fair awhile, cherish’d with *foster Earth. |
1886. Longm. Mag., VII. April, 647. *Foster-homes under the boarding-out system.
1606. Birnie, Kirk-Buriall (1833), 17. To remeede the which misery superstition (the *foster mame of all error) tooke frankely in hand.
1582. Bentley, Mon. Matrones, iii. 272. Like a louing mother, and tender nursse, giving my *fostermilke, the foode of thy word and Gospell, aboundantlie to all.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., 37. That little of love which is abated from the *Foster-parents upon publick report that they are not natural.
1816. Gentl. Mag., LXXXVI. I. Jan., 11/2. The Gentleman’s Magazine being very justly considered as the foster-parent of English Topography.
1878. M. A. Brown, Nadeschda, 16. Scarce had the beauteous maiden ceased When Miljutin, her kind *foster sire … approached.
Hence Fostership = FOSTERAGE.
1861. Clington, Frank O’Donnell, 110. The tie of fostership is, or at least was, held as sacred as that of natural brothers.
