foster home

noun

plural foster homes

: a home or homelike setting where a person or animal is placed for temporary care: such as

a

: a home in which a child receives care from a foster parent

The child, her adopted parents later learned, had been abandoned by her single mother and sent through a series of foster homes …

—Deborah Bloom

Treehouse is a planned intergenerational community, created in the hope that a close-knit support network can prevent children from bouncing from one foster home to another and give them tools to succeed.

—Pam Belluck

b

: a household or similar setting providing temporary care to an animal (such as one that is injured or awaiting adoption)

She had provided a foster home to more than a dozen of the program's birds before and had found the work highly rewarding.

—Dugan Arnett

The cat project currently has 150 cats in foster homes, aside from the many cats in the shelter itself.

—Patricia Camerota

Examples of foster home in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Outdoor female cats with litters will often leave the kittens to go find food, and if someone stumbles along adorable kittens taking a nap, their first impulse could be to take them to the shelter or a foster home, Fried said. —Claire Thornton, USA TODAY, 2 Aug. 2024

She’s learned to coexist with the felines in her foster home. —Shelter Staff, Kansas City Star, 17 July 2024

Marcus' parents took him and his sister to daycare one day and never returned, which landed the kids in foster homes. —Hannah Kirby, Journal Sentinel, 3 Sep. 2024

After weaning her puppies, Noel moved to a long-term foster home with a foster parent dedicated to building her confidence and then moved to a new foster home with a similar setup in April 2023. —Kelli Bender, Peoplemag, 2 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1886, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

foster home

noun

: a household in which an orphaned, neglected, or delinquent child is placed for care

Legal Definition

foster home

noun

: a household in which care is provided to a child who has been orphaned or removed from the home of his or her natural parents (as for reasons of abuse, neglect, or delinquency)