child

/tSaIld/ noun (C) plural children

1 YOUNG PERSON a young person from the time they are born until they are aged 14 or 15: We've always competed, ever since we were children. | Can you sell me a bike suitable for a seven-year-old child? | as a child (=when you were a child): As a child I remember Grandma singing me to sleep. | a child killer/victim/prostitute etc (=a child who is a killer etc)

2 SON/DAUGHTER a son or daughter of any age: How many children did Victoria have? | We'll come if we can find a babysitter for the children. | Is this her first child? (=is this her first pregnancy?) | have a child (=give birth) | an only child (=someone with no brothers or sisters)

3 SB INFLUENCED BY AN IDEA someone who is very strongly influenced by the ideas and attitudes of a particular person or period of history: Thatcher's children are finding that the world has moved on.

(+ of): a real child of the sixties

4 SB WHO IS LIKE A CHILD someone who is not very experienced in doing something, or who behaves like a child: Richard's such a child - he can't even do his own washing and cooking.

5 children should be seen and not heard an expression meaning that children should be quiet and not talk, used when you disapprove of the way the children are behaving

6 be with child old use to be pregnant

7 be heavy/great with child old use to be nearly ready to give birth

-see also: child's play USAGE NOTE: CHILD WORD CHOICE: child, baby, infant, toddler, teenager, adolescent, youth, young people, kid A very young child is a baby or more formally an infant: Many infants have died in the refugee camps . A child who has just learned to walk is a toddler. Young people aged 13 to 19 are teenagers and a younger teenager may also be called an adolescent, but this word is rather formal, and may show a negative attitude: a group of giggly adolescent girls The word youth is often used for an older male teenager (15+) in official reports about crimes or bad behaviour: The police are seeking two youths who raped a teenage girl. In official names youth includes both sexes: a youth club/group/scheme/worker/centre/hostel . Often the phrase young people is used for this age group in everyday English: a disco full of young people dancing Kid is informal and used both for child (up to around 14): The kids are playing in the yard, and for young people: We met a group of college kids. GRAMMAR Remember the plural of child is children, never childs or childrens . But in the possessive form you say: this child's education|these children's education