foster
verb
[ ˈfɒstə ]
• encourage the development of (something, especially something desirable).
• "the teacher's task is to foster learning"
Similar:
encourage,
promote,
further,
stimulate,
advance,
forward,
cultivate,
nurture,
strengthen,
enrich,
help,
aid,
abet,
assist,
contribute to,
support,
endorse,
champion,
speak for,
proselytize,
sponsor,
espouse,
uphold,
back,
boost,
give backing to,
facilitate,
• bring up (a child that is not one's own by birth).
• "a person who would foster Holly was found"
Similar:
bring up,
rear,
raise,
care for,
take care of,
look after,
nurture,
provide for,
mother,
parent,
Origin:
Old 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. See also foster-.
foster-
combining form
• denoting someone that has a specified family connection through fostering.
• "foster-parent"
Origin:
foster-father, foster-mother, foster-child, and foster-brother all date from Old English. Foster-mother has also been used to mean a wet nurse, her husband being foster-father to the child she fed, and a foster-brother or -sister one reared at the same breast.
