foundlings

Meanings

1. 1nouncountableold-fashionedliterary

   Babies or young children who were left by unknown parents and then raised by other people or by an institution.

   Grammar: Countable noun; the singular is 'foundling', so you can say 'a foundling' or 'several foundlings'.

   Patterns

   • a foundling hospital
   • raise a foundling
   • take in a foundling

   The old hospital in the city was built to care for foundlings in the eighteenth century.

   In the novel, two foundlings grow up not knowing who their parents were.

   Records show that many foundlings were given new names by the families who raised them.

2. 2nouncountableliterary

   A person who has no known family background and was brought up by others from infancy.

   Grammar: Used of an adult when referring back to their childhood; still countable.

   Patterns

   • be a foundling
   • a foundling's story

   He learned late in life that he was a foundling, left at a church door as a baby.

   Her memoir describes growing up as a foundling in a large institution.

Word forms

Common combinations

a foundling hospital

The foundling hospital took in babies whose parents could not be traced.

raise a foundling

The couple raised a foundling alongside their own children.

a foundling's origins

Nobody could say anything certain about the foundling's origins.

leave a baby as a foundling

Poverty sometimes led families to leave a baby as a foundling.

Synonyms and how they differ

orphan

An orphan has lost their parents through death, while a foundling was abandoned by parents who are simply unknown.

waif

A waif is a thin, homeless child, often suggesting neglect; a foundling specifically refers to a baby of unknown parentage taken in by others.

Word family

found verb

To establish or set something up, as in 'found a hospital'; unrelated in meaning to foundling.

foundling home noun

An institution where foundlings were cared for, an older term.

Commonly confused: foundlings or founding?

Practice

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