poster child

noun

|Updated on: 11 Jul 2018

Examples: poster child in a Sentence

Definition of poster child

1 : a child who has a disease and is pictured in posters to solicit funds for combating the disease

2 : a person having a public image that is identified with something (such as a cause)

See poster child defined for English-language learners

Examples of poster child in a Sentence

She was a stirring speaker and activist and soon became the poster child of the antiwar movement.

Recent Examples of poster child from the Web

The subject of more than a dozen federal investigations, Pruitt was the poster child for corruption in the Trump administration.

— emily atkin, The New Republic, "Scott Pruitt Is Gone. His Assault on the Environment Continues.," 5 July 2018
Michigan Central Station, the poster child for Detroit’s urban blight, could soon become a beacon for the city’s budding regeneration after being acquired by the Ford Motor Company.

— daniel bentley, Fortune, "Ford Returns to Its Ancestral Home With Purchase of Detroit Landmark," 22 June 2018
In 1971, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees literally turned Albert Einstein into their poster child.

— ze'ev rosenkranz, Time, "The Real Lesson of the Racial Slurs in Albert Einstein’s Private Travel Diaries," 19 June 2018
Armenians have seen their country, once the poster child for democratization after the collapse of the Soviet Union, stagnate in the hands of an entrenched oligarchy while many citizens choose to leave, Broers said.

— sheena mckenzie, CNN, "Armenia in political turmoil after protest leader's bid for power is blocked," 2 May 2018
Read more: The struggle to conceive with frozen eggs: Brigitte Adams was the poster child for egg freezing.

— Washington Post, "Social egg freezing is a numbers game that many women don't understand," 30 Jan. 2018
Even Justin Bieber, the poster child for our current era of troubled pop stars, is always just one phone call with his pastor away from being able to quiet his demons and pop-and-lock on demand.

— carrie battan, GQ, "How Do You Explain Zayn?," 18 June 2018
But don’t try to make Rochester Hills the poster child for racists who embarrass their neighbors.

— rochelle riley, Detroit Free Press, "Detective fights racism in suburb where shots were fired at black kid," 10 June 2018
After appeals, the government batted 0 for 10 in charges against Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds—baseball’s poster children for PEDs.

— michael mccann, SI.com, "Was It the Right Decision for Lance Armstrong to Settle in His Lawsuit With the U.S. Government?," 21 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'poster child.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of poster child

1938

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

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POSTER CHILD Defined for English Language Learners

poster child

noun

Definition of poster child for English Language Learners

: a child who has a particular disease and is shown in posters to raise money to help fight that disease
: a person who represents or is identified with something (such as a cause or product)