FOUNDLING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does foundling mean? 

• FOUNDLING (noun)
  The noun FOUNDLING has 1 sense:

1. a child who has been abandoned and whose parents are unknown

  Familiarity information: FOUNDLING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOUNDLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A child who has been abandoned and whose parents are unknown

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

abandoned infant; foundling

Hypernyms ("foundling" is a kind of...):

babe; baby; infant (a very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk)

 Context examples 

By birth she belonged to Highbury: and when at three years old, on losing her mother, she became the property, the charge, the consolation, the foundling of her grandmother and aunt, there had seemed every probability of her being permanently fixed there; of her being taught only what very limited means could command, and growing up with no advantages of connexion or improvement, to be engrafted on what nature had given her in a pleasing person, good understanding, and warm-hearted, well-meaning relations.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)