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infant Definition

in·fant (in′fənt)

noun

  1. a very young child; baby
  2. a person in the state of legal infancy; minor

Etymology: ME infaunt < OFr enfant < L infans (gen. infantis), child < adj., not yet speaking < in-, not + fans, prp. of fari, to speak: see fame

adjective

  1. of or for infants or infancy
  2. in a very early stage

infant Synonyms

infant

n.

baby, newborn, tot, little one; see baby 1, child.

infant Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • breast-feed: In support of this notion, recent clinical studies have demonstrated that the breast-fed infant has a lower risk of acquiring urinary tract infections.
  • baptize: On Baptism I have often thought that the tradition of baptizing infants is a strange practice.
  • baptize: We baptized the infant and had all the usual trappings of Xmas, a tree, and plum pudding and even an open hearth.
  • breastfeed: Breastfed infants have less exposure to cow?s milk, a potential allergen in genetically susceptible children.

Adjective modifier

  • newborn: The results showed that newborn infants can imitate both adult displays.
  • premature: Once stable, they too, including extremely premature infants, will be washed in a solution of Baby Bubbles.
  • preterm: A substantially increased risk of delivering a preterm low birthweight infant among mothers with periodontal disease was reported in a recent study.
  • unborn: Other relevant features Unborn infants, neonates, immunocompromised individuals, pregnant women and the elderly are at high risk.

Modifies a noun

  • mortality: In 1901 infant mortality was 142 deaths per 1000 live births.
  • formula: You can only exchange tokens for infant formula at an NHS clinic or other outlet your local Primary Care Trust uses.
  • baptism: In 1524 the struggle about infant baptism began anew in Zurich.
  • feeding: Back to top Fiona Dikes ' Feeding all the time ' : Temporal tensions around infant feeding in English hospitals.
  • syndrome: Sudden infant death syndrome accounted for 42 cases, 4 fewer than in 1995.
  • colic: A previous review of treatments for infant colic was pessimistic.

Noun used with modifier

  • preterm: This changed dramatically with the administration of supplemental oxygen to preterm infants in the late 1940s.
  • full-term: Inhaled nitric oxide in full-term and nearly full-term infants with hypoxic respiratory failure.
  • birthweight: Very low birthweight infants with clinical seizures have a higher incidence of impairment than preterm infants without seizures 34.
  • soya: Have you been given a prescription soya infant formula?
  • fed: Where water is unsafe baby milk fed infants are 25 times more likely to die than breastfed babies.
infant Quotes

Here lies a lady of beauty and high degree. Of chills and fever she died, of fever and chills, The delight of her husband, her aunts, an infant of three, And of medicos marvelling sweetly on her ills.

—Ransom,John Crowe

   Language was not powerful enough to describe the infant phenomenon.

—Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam

With each generation the entire race passes through the body of its womanhood as through a mould, reappearing withtheindeliblemarks ofthat mould upon it, that as the os cervix of woman, through which the head of the human infant passes at birth, forms a ring, determining for ever the size at birth of the human head†so exactly the intellectual capacity, the physical vigour, the emotional depth of woman, forms also an untranscendable circle, circumscribing with each successive generation the limits of expansion of the human race. 720

—Iron

La cruaute¤  , bien loin d'e"  tre un vice, est le premier sentiment qu'imprime en nous la nature; l'enfant brise son hochet, mord le te¤  ton de sa nourrice, e¤  trangle son oiseau, bien avant que d'avoir l'a"  ge de raison. Far from being a vice, cruelty is the primary feeling that nature imprints in us. The infant breaks its rattle, bites its nurse's nipple, and strangles a bird, well before reaching the age of reason.

—Sade, Donatien Alphonse Fran c° ois, Marquis de

Behold, we know not anything; I can but trust that good shall fall At lastöfar offöat last, to all, And every winter change to spring. So runs my dream: but what am I? An infant crying in the night: An infant crying for the light: And with no language but a cry.

—Tennyson

This infant whose middle Is diapered still Will want to marry My daughter Jill. Oh sweet be his slumber and moist his middle! My dreams, I fear, are infanticiddle.

—Nash, (Frederic) Ogden

Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires. 134

—Blake,William

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans