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The American Heritage
®
Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.
2000.
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| child
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| PRONUNCIATION
:
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 ch
 ld
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| NOUN:
| Inflected forms: pl.
chil·dren
(
ch
 l
 dr
 n)
1.
A person between birth and puberty.
2
a.
An unborn infant; a fetus.
b.
An infant; a baby.
3.
One who is childish or immature.
4.
A son or daughter; an offspring.
5.
A member of a tribe; descendant:
children of Abraham.
6
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).
| | IDIOM:
| with child
Pregnant.
| | ETYMOLOGY:
| Middle English, from Old English
cild
.
| | OTHER FORMS:
| child
less
—
ADJECTIVE
child
less·ness
—
NOUN
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| The American Heritage
®
Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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