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