[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That fosters, in senses of the verb.
1568. T. Howell, Arb. Amitie (1879), 35.
| The fethred foule that flees aloft, | |
| obtaines the things he seekes: | |
| And sundrie where his fostring foode, | |
| with chirping bill he peekes. |
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 9.
| Bacchus and fost’ring Ceres, Pow’rs Divine, | |
| Who gave us Corn for Mast, for Water Wine. |
1764. Goldsm., The Traveller, 368.
| Thou transitory flower, alike undone | |
| By proud contempt, or favour’s fostering sun. |
1795. Burns, Lett. to Cunningham, 1.
| Now Spring has clad the grove in green, | |
| And strew’d the lea wi’ flowers, | |
| The furrow’d waving corn is seen | |
| Rejoice in fostering showers. |
1840. Macaulay, Ranke’s Hist., Ess. 1851, II. 145. Edinburgh has owed less to climate, to soil, and to the fostering care of rulers than any capital, Protestant or Catholic.
Hence Fosteringly adv.
1838. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), IV. 205. She sat imprisoned, or it might be sheltered and fosteringly embowered, in those circumstances of hers.
