CHILD


Meaning of CHILD in English

I. ˈchīld, esp before pause or consonant -īəld noun

( plural children ˈchildrən, -dərn also -dən sometimes -u̇l-)

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English cild; akin to Old Swedish kulder all the children of the same marriage, litter, Gothic kilthei womb, inkiltko pregnant, Sanskrit jaṭhara belly, Latin galla gallnut — more at gall

1.

a. : an unborn or recently born human being : fetus , infant , baby

b. now dialect : a female infant

2.

a. : a young person of either sex especially between infancy and youth

a play for both children and adults

a child bride

these child authors — Louis Auchincloss

b. : one who exhibits the characteristics of a very young person (as innocence or lack of restraint)

she would stay what she was — a placid grownup child until she died — IdaA.R.Wylie

I am a child in most matters of practical business — O.W.Holmes †1935

c. : a person who has not yet come of age — compare age 1d(2), age of consent , age of discretion

3. usually childe ˈchī(ə)ld usually capitalized , archaic : a child or youth wellborn or of noble birth — usually used as a title especially in early English ballads and romances

Childe Harold

Childe Roland

4.

a. : a son or a daughter : a male or female descendant in the first degree : the immediate progeny of human parents

b. : an adopted child

c. : any specified direct descendant (as a grandchild) — used especially in wills

5. : descendant : a member of the tribe or clan — usually used in plural

the children of Israel

6.

a. : one who in character or practices shows strong signs of the relationship to or the influence of another (as a disciple of a teacher)

a child of God

b. : one who has been strongly conditioned by a place, a type of action or occupation, or a state of affairs

a child of New York

a child of toil

a child of the depression

7. : something in a relationship suggesting that of child to parent: as

a. : product , result

technical development, the children of British brains and ingenuity — Roy Lewis & Angus Maude

barbed wire … is truly a child of the plains — W.P.Webb

Holland is the child of its rivers and of the sea — S.L.A.Marshall

b. : dependent , subsidiary

another child of both competing outfits was marketing their products in the Middle East and Africa — E.O.Hauser

- this child

- with child

II. verb

( -ed/-ing/-s )

Etymology: Middle English childen, from child, n.

obsolete : to bear young : give birth

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.