CHILD • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Child

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/tʃaɪld/ Listen

noun

Child n. (pl. children)

1.

A son or a daughter; a male or female descendant, in the first degree; the immediate progeny of human parents; in law, legitimate offspring. Used also of animals and plants.

2.

A descendant, however remote; used esp. in the plural; as, the children of Israel; the children of Edom.

3.

One who, by character of practice, shows signs of relationship to, or of the influence of, another; one closely connected with a place, occupation, character, etc.; as, a child of God; a child of the devil; a child of disobedience; a child of toil; a child of the people.

4.

A noble youth. See Childe. (Obs.)

5.

A young person of either sex. esp. one between infancy and youth; hence, one who exhibits the characteristics of a very young person, as innocence, obedience, trustfulness, limited understanding, etc. "When I was child. I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

6.

A female infant. (Obs.) "A boy or a child, I wonder?"

To be with child, to be pregnant.

Child's play, light work; a trifling contest.

verb

Child v. i. (past & past part. childed; pres. part. childing) To give birth; to produce young. "This queen Genissa childing died." "It chanced within two days they childed both."

See images of 'Child'

Etymology of 'Child'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Child" Quotes from Famous Books

... father said angrily. "This is no concern of a child like you." When the door closed behind the girl he said ...

— The Bravest of the Brave - or, with Peterborough in Spain • G. A. Henty

... succeeded it. When Baeza's match went out there was no light anywhere; from a room somewhere above came a sound of quarrelling voices—a woman's voice high and shrill, a man's voice hoarse and drunken, and, as an accompaniment, the wailing of a child wakened from ...

— The Summons • A.E.W. Mason

... present. I would walk without drinking, so as not to excite my thirst," replied the child archly, who had failed to be convinced by ...

— Adventures of a Young Naturalist • Lucien Biart

... longed for, on this or that part of the body. And, what is still more, and approaches to a prodigy, upon the mother being terrified by a sudden injury done to any one part, that very part in the child suffers the same evil, and decays for want of nourishment. I know that the truth of stories of this kind, is called in doubt by some physicians; because they cannot conceive, how such things can happen. But many examples, of which I have been an eye-witness, have ...

— Medica Sacra - or a Commentary on on the Most Remarkable Diseases Mentioned - in the Holy Scriptures • Richard Mead

... up. You explain a Fringing Reef as a reef which is formed round land comparatively stationary; an Encircling Reef as one which is formed round land going down; and an Atoll as a reef formed upon land gone down; and the thing is so simple that a child may understand it when it is ...

— Coral and Coral Reefs • Thomas H. Huxley

Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com