foundling
/ˈfaʊndlɪŋ
/noun
An infant that has been abandoned by its parents and is discovered and cared for by others.The hospital was the parent of all foundlings admitted until they reached the age of 21, overseers and other local officials having no power in the hospital....
- One of the most graphic indicators of the growth in poverty was the rise in the number of foundlings and abandoned children.
- Ginger Rogers plays a department store clerk who is mistakenly identified as the mother of an infant foundling.
Synonyms
abandoned infant, waif, stray, orphan, outcast;
French enfant trouvé
archaic wastrel
Origin
Middle English: from found1 (past participle) + -ling, perhaps on the pattern of Dutch vondeling.
Rhymes
- belting
- beltline
- belt loop
- beltman
- belt sander
- belt something out
- belt-tightening
- belt up
- beltway
- Beltway bandit
- beluga
- beluga caviar
- belvedere
- Belyando spew
- belying
- Belém
- BEM
- bema
- be made of money
- be made of sterner stuff
- be made up
- be man enough to do (or for)
- Bemba
- be meat and drink to
- be mentioned in dispatches