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

Best Friends is certain that the perfect family is out there, but has Polly set up in a comfortable foster home in the meantime. —Kelli Bender, PEOPLE, 29 Jan. 2026

The humane society is now trying to get as many dogs as possible into foster homes because their building is old and doesn't retain heat well. —CBS News, 23 Jan. 2026

San Antonio Animal Care Services is urging the public to help place at least 100 dogs into foster homes, even for a short time, ahead of this weekend. —Jacob Beltran, San Antonio Express-News, 22 Jan. 2026

Having been taken to emergency rooms or psychiatric units, the children languished there, sometimes for months, beyond when doctors said they could be discharged because caseworkers couldn't find a foster home or other facility to take them. —Jean Marbella, Baltimore Sun, 15 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1886, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for foster home

• acrosome
• aerodrome
• catacomb
• centrosome
• chromosome
• cytochrome
• hippodrome
• honeycomb
• liposome
• meerschaum
• metronome
• microtome

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)