offspring
/ˈɒfsprɪŋ
/noun (plural same)
1A person’s child or children: the offspring of middle-class parents...
- Parents expect too much from their offspring and the children are unable to meet it.
- However, to avoid paying strangers to look after their offspring, should parents be forced to ask such a task of their own parents?
- Leaving a small child at day care can be a traumatic experience for both the parents and their offspring.
Synonyms
children, sons and daughters, progeny, family, youngsters, babies, brood;
descendants, heirs, successors, scions;
young, litter, fry;
Law issue
informal kids, quiverful
derogatory spawn
archaic seed, fruit, fruit of one's loins
child, baby, infant, son, daughter, youngster, little one, tot, tiny tot;
descendant, heir, successor;
Scottish & Northern English bairn, wean;
West Indian pickney
informal kid, kiddie, kiddiewink, nipper, brat, lad, shaver, munchkin, tiny, chick
British informal sprog
South African informal outjie, lighty
literary babe
1.1An animal’s young.The young bird is the offspring of the well-known pair of black eagles that nests in the Walter Sisulu Botanical Garden....
- When fully grown up, the offspring of birds and animals abandon their parents, and carve out a world of their own.
- The first offspring of the animal is passed on to a neighbouring poor family, so that the benefit is multiplied each year.
1.2The product or result of something: German nationalism was the offspring of military ambition...
- Humourless and heavy-hearted love only produces hate as its offspring.
- Indeed, 100 years of germ theory has spawned impressive germ-fighting offspring.
Origin
Old English ofspring (see off, spring).