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

Dayna Cooper, director of home and community care at the Department of Veterans Affairs, oversees the medical foster home program. —James Brown, CBS News, 3 July 2024

Difficulty turns to tragedy when Percy dies and the children are sent to foster homes on opposite sides of the country. —Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline, 14 June 2024

In the series, Riley Keough plays Rebecca, a writer who has come home to Saanich, British Columbia, to research a book about a group of teenage girls who live at Seven Oaks, a foster home. —Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 13 June 2024

Eagan said other services needed could include more therapeutic foster home placements, which are higher levels of care in foster homes that are designed for children who have experienced trauma that can range from domestic violence to neglect. —Jaden Edison, Hartford Courant, 27 May 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)