A Dictionary of the English Language

FOUNDLING.

FO’UNDLING. n. s. [from found of find.] A child exposed to
chance; a child found without any parent or owner.

We, like bastards, are laid abroad, even as foundlings, to
be trained up by grief and sorrow.
  Sidney.

I pass the foundling by, a race unknown,
At doors expos'd, whom matrons make their own,
And into noble families advance
A nameless issue; the blind work of chance.
  Dryd. Juven.

I shall mention a piece of charity which is practised by most
of the nations about us: I mean a provision for foundlings, or
for those children who, for want of such a provision, are ex­
posed to the barbarity of cruel and unnatural parents.
  Addison.

The goddess long had mark'd the child's distress,
And long had sought his suff'rings to redress;
She prays the gods to take the foundling's part,
To teach his hands some beneficial art
Practis'd in streets.
  Gay's Trivia.