Forms: 1 ? fóstrian, 3 fostren, -in, (Orm. fosstrenn), 3–6 fostre, (3 south. vostre, 4 fostire), 5 foustre, (5 fostare, 7 fauster), 3– foster. [OE. *fóstrian (Lye), = ON. fóstra (Sw. fostra, Du. fostre), f. fóstor, FOSTER sb.1 The recorded OE. féstr(i)an may be either f. the same stem or f. féstre nurse: see FOSTER sb.2]
† 1. trans. To supply with food or nourishment; to nourish, feed, support. In early quots. to feed and foster. Obs. in lit. sense.
[a. 1050. Liber Scintill., lxxxi. (1889), 222. Mann byþ festrud [nutritur] & byð ȝefedd.]
c. 1200. Ormin, 1556.
| & Jesu Crist himm sellf shall ben | |
| Uppo þatt bodiȝ hæfedd, | |
| To fedenn & to fosstrenn hemm, | |
| To steorenn & to berrȝhenn. |
c. 1300. Havelok, 1434.
| So þat vn-to þis [ilke] day, | |
| Haue ich ben fed and fostred ay. |
c. 1386. Chaucer, Manciple’s T., 71.
| Lat take a cat, and fostre him wel with milk, | |
| And tendre flesh, and make his couche of silk. |
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 434 b/1. Wold to god I had mylke to foustre the wythal.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., II. iii. 119.
| One, bred but of Almes, and foster’d with cold dishes, | |
| With scraps o’th’Court. |
[1719. Young, Busiris, V. i.
| My dearest Heat! The Infant of my Bosom! | |
| Whom I would foster with my vital Blood.] |
fig. a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xxx. 4. For þi name þou sall lede me & fostire me.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 3495. His flesche is fostard & fedd be fiȝt & by sternes.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531). 108 b. They sholde be … with swete consolacyons fostred & nourysshed.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, II. ii. III. iv.
| Or chok’d continually with impiety, | |
| Fauster’d and fed with hid hypocrisie. |
† 2. To bring up (a child) with parental care; often, to bring up as a foster-child, be a foster-parent to. Also with forth, up. Obs.
c. 1205. Lay., 25900.
| Ich wes hire uoster-moder, | |
| and feire heo uostredde. |
a. 1300. Cursor Mundi, 3069 (Trin.).
| Here shal þou wiþ him wone | |
| & foster forþ here þi sone. |
1357. Lay Folks Catech.
| Fleshli fadir and modir | |
| That getes and fosters us forthe in this world. |
c. 1386. Chaucer, Man of Law’s T., 177. Thy yonge doughter fostred up so softe.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, I. vi. Your wyf that as wel as her owne hath fostred me and kepte.
1529. More, Supplic. Soulys, Wks. 337/2. Oure fathers also, whiche while we liued fostred vs vp so tenderly & could not haue endured to see vs suffer payn.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., II. iii. 153.
| Some say, that Rauens foster forlorne children, | |
| The whil’st their owne birds famish in their nests. |
1606. Bryskett, Civ. Life, 34. Such children as were borne vnperfect in any part of their bodies, crooked, mis-shapen, of ill aspect, should not onely, not be fostered vp, but also be throwne downe from the top of a high rocke, as creatures condemned by God and nature in their conception.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, VII. 941.
| The Son of Mulciber: | |
| Found in the Fire, and foster’d in the Plains. |
† b. To bring up, educate, nurture in (beliefs, habits, etc.). Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sec. Nun’s T., 122.
| This mayden bright Cecilie, as hir lyf saith, | |
| Was comen of Romayns and of noble kynde, | |
| And from hir cradel fostred in the faith | |
| Of Crist, and bar his Gospel in hir mynde. |
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 378/1. Fro the tyme that she laye in hir cradle she was fostrid and nourisshed in the feythe of cryste.
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., 50. All the sonnes of god suld be fosterit, teachit, and brocht vp in continuall exercise.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia, II. (1590), 138 b. A Prince of great courage and beauty, but fostred [ed. 1598, fostered vp] in blood by his naughty Father.
c. with reference to FOSTERAGE 2. Also absol.
1515. in St. Papers Hen. VIII. (1834), II. 13. Some sayeth, that the Englyshe noble folke useith to delyver therre children to the Kynges Irysshe enymyes to foster.
1596. Spenser, State Irel. Wks. (Globe), 638/2. These evill custodies of fostring and marrying with the Irish most carefully to be restrayned.
1775. Johnson, West. Islands, 313. A Laird, a man of wealth and eminence, sends his child, either male or female, to a tacksman, or tenant, to be fostered.
1887. W. Stokes, trans. Tripartite Life Patrick, 141. He gave him to bishop Bron to be fostered, for it was not easy to take him away to a distance, because of his father’s affection (for him).
d. To foster on (a lamb): to put it to a ewe, which is not its mother, to be nourished.
1816. Keatinge, Trav. (1817), II. 263–4. Sometimes it is necessary to fasten and compel the ewes to admit the lambs, either their own or fostered on, to suck them, in a cleft stick. After two or three times they desist from resisting them. Note, To foster on a lamb, they tie the ewe, and at night compel her to give suck to the lamb two or three times, having put on the lamb the skin of the dead one, and sprinkled it over with salt.
e. transf. and fig. of a country, etc.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 22101.
| Bethsaida and corozaim, | |
| þir tua cites sal foster him. |
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 145/2. We do contain euery mans countrie wherin he was borne, which fed, fostered, adorned, & defended him.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 35.
| What fel beastlye pepil rest theer? such barbarus vsadge | |
| What soyle wyld fosters? On sands they renounce vs an harboure. |
3. To ‘nurse,’ tend with affectionate care; to ‘nurse,’ cherish, keep warm (in the bosom).
c. 1386. Chaucer, Clerk’s T., 166.
| And in greet reverence and charitee | |
| Hir olde poore fader fostred she. | |
| Ibid., Merch. T., 143. | |
| No man hateth his flesh, but in his lyf | |
| He fostreth it. |
1388. Wyclif, Prov. v. 20. Mi sone, whi art thou disseyued of an alien womman; and art fostrid [foveris] in the bosum of an othere?
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, I iv b. She hadde grete pyte of wymmen whiche were at theyre childbedde and vysyted and foustred them.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks 330. I was so foolish, and inconsiderat to foster vp as it were in my bosome this my domesticall and neglected enemie.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., xxxi. What a viper have I been fostering in my bosom!
1821. Keats, Lamia, 140.
| But the god fostering her chilled hand, | |
| She felt the warmth, her eyelids open’d bland. |
4. To encourage or help to grow; to promote the growth of (a fire, plant, etc.). Also, with † forth, up. Now only with mixture of sense 3.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 296. Þe sparke … lið & keccheð more fur, & fostreð hit forð, & waxeð from lesse to more.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVII. 206.
| And as wex and weyke · and hole fyre togyderes | |
| Fostren forth a flaumbe. |
1555. Watreman, Fardle Facions, I. i. 24 The moste pleasaunt plot of the earth, fostered to flourishe with the moisture offloudes on euery parte.
1576. Gascoigne, Philomene, 1 (Arb.), 87.
| In sweet April, the messenger to May, | |
| When hoonie drops, do melt in golden showres, | |
| When euery byrde, records hir louers lay, | |
| And westerne windes, do foster forth our floures. |
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 171. They [the priests] shaue their heads, and foster their beards contrary to the laity.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., viii.
| Yet as that other, wandering there | |
| In those deserted walks, may find | |
| A flower beat with rain and wind, | |
| Which once she foster’d up with care. |
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. ix. 98–9. Here, protected from the frost by the infiltration of the melted snows, and fostered by the reverberation of solar heat from the rocks, we met a flower-growth, which, though drearily Arctic in its type, was rich in variety and coloring.
5. To encourage, cherish, harbor fondly, nurse (a feeling, etc.); to encourage, promote the development of; (of things, circumstances) to be favorable or conducive to. Also with up.
1570. G. Buchanan, Admonitioun to the Trew Lordis, Wks. (1892), 31. The hamiltonis fosterit yair vane hoip.
1585. Abp. Sandys, Serm., x. 166. The Donatists, the Arrians, the Anabaptists, the Family of loue, with all others of the like sort, fostered vp their errors in secret and darke corners.
1755. Monitor (1756), I. ii. 17. They always foster up a jealousy in the minds of the people.
1783. Johnson, Lett. to Mrs. Thrale, 8 July. Of Miss H—— whom you charge me with forgetting, I know not why I should much foster the remembrance, for I can do her no good.
1785. Burke, Sp. Nabob of Arcot’s Debts, Wks. IV. 207. The system of concealment is fostered by a system of falsehood.
1809–10. Coleridge, The Friend (1865), 192. Rivalry between two nations conduces to the independence of both, calls forth or fosters all the virtues by which national security is maintained.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. 216. Thus fostered, the insurrection was rapidly gaining head, and from fifteen to twenty thousand men were assembled under Trimbak and his associates.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, VII. viii. It is in vain to speak of the enmities that are fostered between you and my grandfather; the love that exists between your daughter and myself is stronger than all your hatreds.
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., viii. (1876), 76. The genius of financiers was directed towards fostering exportation, checking importation.
1885. Clodd, Myths & Dr., I. iii. 40. The superstitions which mountainous countries especially foster are intensified when the mountains themselves cast forth their awful and devastating progeny, ‘red ruin’ and the other children born of them.
† b. To encourage, indulge in a habit, etc. Obs.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 64. He beyng a perturber of peace and vnitie, was rather to be brideled for his presumption, then to bee fostered and encouraged therin.
1633. Prynne, 1st Pt. Histrio-mastix, VI. vi. 505. Stage-playes serve for nothing else, but either to draw men on by degrees to idlenesse, or to foster, to foment them in it: Wherefore they are rightly called Playes, from playing; because they teach men onely to play away their time with-drawing them from their Studies, their Vocations, unto idlenesse, and a kinde of lasie life.
Hence Fostered ppl. a.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 17. Iunoes long fostred deadlye reuengment.
1608. Armin, Nest Ninn. (1842), 50. The Citty, more desirous to pitty then to be cruell, placed him as a fostred fatherless child.
1639. G. Daniel, Ecclus., xxix. 95.
| Thou shalt be revil’d | |
| By every tongue, even by the ffoster’d Child | |
| Of thy owne Charity. |
1790–1811. W. Combe, The Devil upon Two Sticks in England (1817), IV. 201. The narrow spirit of trading life prevented the father from allowing his son that liberal income which his superior education, the fostered habits of his mind, and his future expectations, naturally required.
