foster home

noun

plural foster homes

: a home or homelike setting where a person or animal is placed for temporary care: such as

a

: a home in which a child receives care from a foster parent

The child, her adopted parents later learned, had been abandoned by her single mother and sent through a series of foster homes …

—Deborah Bloom

Treehouse is a planned intergenerational community, created in the hope that a close-knit support network can prevent children from bouncing from one foster home to another and give them tools to succeed.

—Pam Belluck

b

: a household or similar setting providing temporary care to an animal (such as one that is injured or awaiting adoption)

She had provided a foster home to more than a dozen of the program's birds before and had found the work highly rewarding.

—Dugan Arnett

The cat project currently has 150 cats in foster homes, aside from the many cats in the shelter itself.

—Patricia Camerota

Examples of foster home in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The two pit mixes who have been in foster homes the longest are 4-year-old Mala and 9-year-old Max, whose stays have been 22 and 17 months, respectively. —Beth Lipoff, Kansas City Star, 5 Feb. 2025

Another way to alleviate stress is by placing dogs in foster homes. —Dan Perry, Newsweek, 31 Jan. 2025

Many shelters are full and can't always accept new animals, so foster homes fill an enormous gap, with tens of thousands of dogs and cats fostered each year. —Claire Thornton, USA TODAY, 17 Jan. 2025

The shelter also stated in the update post that most of the 27 Chihuahuas found dumped on the roadside are not ready for foster homes or adopters yet. —Kelli Bender, People.com, 12 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1886, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for foster home

• acrosome
• aerodrome
• catacomb
• centrosome
• chromosome
• cytochrome
• hippodrome
• honeycomb
• liposome
• meerschaum
• metronome
• microtome

Kids Definition

foster home

noun

: a household in which an orphaned, neglected, or delinquent child is placed for care

Legal Definition

foster home

noun

: a household in which care is provided to a child who has been orphaned or removed from the home of his or her natural parents (as for reasons of abuse, neglect, or delinquency)