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Incubate vs Foster - What's the difference?

incubate | foster |

As a verb incubate

is to brood, raise, or maintain eggs, organisms, or living tissue through the provision of ideal environmental conditions.

As a proper noun foster is

, variant of forster.

incubate

English

Verb

(incubat)
  • To brood, raise, or maintain eggs, organisms, or living tissue through the provision of ideal environmental conditions.
  • * 1975:' , ''Adventures in Prayer'', New York, Ballantine Books, December 1976, page 46 - Part of our problem in praying for our children, he suggested, is the time lage, the necessary slow maturation of our prayers. But that's the way of God's rhythm in nature. For instance, the hen must patiently sit on her eggs to ' incubate them before the baby chicks hatch.
  • * 1985:' , ''Blood Meridian'', New York, Vintage International, May 1992, page 3 - The mother dead these fourteen years did ' incubate in her own bosom the creature who would carry her off.
  • * 2004:' , ''The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World'' New York, Simon & Schuster, 2004, page 50 - The female cichlid fish are called "mouth breeders," which means they ' incubate eggs in their mouth.
  • To incubate metaphorically; to ponder an idea slowly and deliberately as if in preparation for hatching it.
  • * 1992:' , ''The Songwriters Idea Book: 40 Strategies to Excite Your Imagination, Help You Design Distinctive Songs, and Keep Your Creative Flow'', Cincinnati, Writer's Digest Books, 1992, page 96. - When you've got your theme–let the concept ' incubate . Walk around with it, sleep on it.

    • Derived terms

    * incubation * incubative * incubator

    foster

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Providing parental care to unrelated children.
  • Receiving such care
  • Related by such care

    • Noun

  • (countable, obsolete) A forester
  • (uncountable) The care given to another; guardianship

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To nurture or bring up offspring; or to provide similar parental care to an unrelated child.
  • To cultivate and grow something.
    • Our company fosters an appreciation for the arts.
  • To nurse or cherish something.
  • (obsolete) To be nurtured or trained up together.
    • (Spenser)

    Antonyms

    * (cultivate and grow) hinder

    Derived terms

    * fosterable * fosterage * foster-child, foster child * fosterer * foster home * fosterhood * fostering * fosterment * foster parent

    Anagrams

    * * * * ----