[OE. fóstorling: see FOSTER sb.1 and -LING.] A foster-child, nursling.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., Supp., in Wr.-Wülcker, 170. Uerna, uel uernaculus, imberdling, uel fostorling.
c. 1205. Lay., 28574.
| Þer weoren of-slaȝe … | |
| þa Bruttes alle of Arðures borde, | |
| and alle his fosterlinges. |
1630. B. Jonson, New Inn, V. i.
| I’ll none o’ your Light-Heart fosterlings, no inmates, | |
| Supposititious fruits of an host’s brain, | |
| And his Fly’s hatching, to be put upon me. |
1872. Morris, Love is enough (1873), 70.
| —Come nearer, O fosterer, come nearer and kiss me, | |
| Bid farewell to thy fosterling while the life yet is in me. |
1886. The Saturday Review, LXI. 20 Feb., 272/2. Unlike, however, the great majority of writers in either camp, he has no special fosterling of his own, no pet theory for which he is bent on securing a due amount of recognition; and the absence of any such gives to his treatment a certain rotundity and balance highly desirable in a popular exposition of this kind.
