foster
verb /ˈfɒstə(r)/
/ˈfɑːstər/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they foster | /ˈfɒstə(r)/ /ˈfɑːstər/ |
| he / she / it fosters | /ˈfɒstəz/ /ˈfɑːstərz/ |
| past simple fostered | /ˈfɒstəd/ /ˈfɑːstərd/ |
| past participle fostered | /ˈfɒstəd/ /ˈfɑːstərd/ |
| -ing form fostering | /ˈfɒstərɪŋ/ /ˈfɑːstərɪŋ/ |
- [transitive] foster something to encourage something to develop synonym encourage, promote
- The club's aim is to foster better relations within the community.
Extra Examples- The school has carefully fostered its progressive image.
- Such organizations need to foster innovation.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- carefully
- deliberately
- help (to)
- be designed to
- [transitive, intransitive] foster (somebody) (especially British English) to take another person’s child into your home for a period of time, without becoming his or her legal parents
- They have fostered over 60 children during the past ten years.
- We couldn't adopt a child, so we decided to foster.
Collocations ChildrenChildrenHaving a baby/childcompare adoptTopics Life stagesc1, Family and relationshipsc1- want a baby/a child/kids
- start a family
- conceive/be expecting/be going to have a baby/child
- miss your period
- become/get/be/find out that you are pregnant
- have a baby/a child/kids/a son/a daughter/twins/a family
- have a normal/a difficult/an unwanted pregnancy; an easy/a difficult/a home birth
- be in/go into/induce labour (especially US English) labor
- have/suffer/cause a miscarriage
- give birth to a child/baby/daughter/son/twins
- bring up/ (especially North American English) raise a child/family
- care for/ (especially British English) look after a baby/child/kid
- change (British English) a nappy/(North American English) a diaper/a baby
- feed/breastfeed/bottle-feed a baby
- be entitled to/go on maternity/paternity leave
- go back/return to work after maternity leave
- need/find/get a babysitter/good quality affordable childcare
- balance/combine work and childcare/child-rearing/family life
- educate/teach/home-school a child/kid
- punish/discipline/spoil a child/kid
- adopt a baby/child/kid
- offer a baby for/put a baby up for adoption
- (especially British English) foster a child/kid
- be placed with/be raised by foster parents
Word OriginOld English fōstrian ‘feed, nourish’, from fōster ‘food, nourishment’, of Germanic origin; related to food. The sense ‘bring up another's (originally also one's own) child’ dates from Middle English.