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child
The definition of a child is a person you have given birth to, your son or your daughter, a person who hasn't yet grown up, someone inexperienced in a certain thing or someone behaving in an immature manner.
(noun)- An example of your child is your 30 year old son.
- An example of a child is someone who is only four years old.
- An example of a child is an adult who throws a temper tantrum any time he doesn't get his way.
- An example of a child in political matters is someone who has no knowledge of politics at all.
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See child in Webster's New World College Dictionary
noun pl. children
- an infant; baby
- an unborn offspring; fetus
- a boy or girl in the period before puberty
- a son or daughter; offspring
- a descendant
- a member of a tribe, clan, etc.: often used in pl.: children of Israel
- a person like a child in interests, judgment, etc., or one regarded as immature and childish
- a person identified with a specified place, time, etc.: a child of the Renaissance
- a thing that springs from a specified source; product: a child of one's imagination
- Archaic childe
- Brit., Dialectal a female infant
Origin: ME, pl. childre (now dial. childer; children is double pl.) < OE cild, pl. cild, cildru < IE *gelt-, a swelling up < base *gel-, rounded (sense development: swelling — womb — fetus — offspring > Goth kilthei, womb, L globus, sphere
Related Forms:
- childless adjective
- childlessness noun
Child,
Francis James 1825-96; U.S. scholar and collector of Eng. & Scot. ballads
See child in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun pl. chil·dren (chĭlˈdrən)
- a. A person between birth and puberty.b. A person who has not attained maturity or the age of legal majority.
- a. An unborn infant; a fetus.b. An infant; a baby.
- One who is childish or immature.
- A son or daughter; an offspring.
- A member of a tribe; descendant: children of Abraham.
- a. An individual regarded as strongly affected by another or by a specified time, place, or circumstance: a child of nature; a child of the Sixties.b. A product or result of something specified: “Times Square is a child of the 20th century” (Richard F. Shepard).
Origin:
Origin: Middle English
Origin: , from Old English cild
.Related Forms:
- childˈless adjective
- childˈless·ness noun
American cookery expert known for her books and her instructional television and video series.
, Lydia Maria Francis 1802-1880.
American abolitionist and writer of novels, children's books, and reform works, such as Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans (1833).
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