1 [VN] (written) to encourage sth to develop:
The club's aim is to foster better relations within the community.
2 (especially BrE) to take another person's child into your home for a period of time, without becoming his or her legal parents:
[VN] They have fostered over 60 children during the past ten years. * [V] We couldn't adopt a child, so we decided to foster.
compareADOPT
adjective [onlybeforenoun] used with some nouns in connection with the fostering of a child:
a foster mother / father / family * foster parents * a foster child * a foster home * foster care
