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An object regarded with special affection; a precious thing. "Our prince (jewel of children)." Shak.

A genius or demon; one of the fabled genii, good and evil spirits, supposed to be the children of fire, and to have the power of assuming various forms. [Written also jin, djinnee, etc.]

sometimes applied opprobriously to feasting by public officers at the public cost. Job's children junketed and feasted together often. South.

A young child or infant; hence, a simple person, easily imposed on. [Slang] Charles Reade.

Abbott. You may reason or expostulate with the parents, but never attempt to kidnap their children, and to make proselytes of them. Whately.

A school for young children, conducted on the theory that education should be begun by gratifying and cultivating the normal aptitude for exercise, play, observation, imitation, and construction; -- a name given by Friedrich Froebel, a German educator, who introduced this method of training, in rooms opening on a garde…

A playing card marked with the figure of a servant or soldier; a jack. Knave child, a male child. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Travail; the pangs and efforts of childbirth. The queen's in labor, They say, in great extremity; and feared She'll with the labor end. Shak.

To make lame. If you happen to let child fall and lame it. Swift.

cheerful, pleasant, mirthful, lively, or brilliant; to sparkle; to sport. Then laughs the childish year, with flowerets crowned. Dryden. In Folly's cup still laughs the bubble Joy. Pope. To laugh at, to make an object of laughter or ridicule; to make fun of; to deride. No wit to flatter left of all his store, No fool t…

duct with the hand, or by means of some physical contact connection; as, a father leads a child; a jockey leads a horse with a halter; a dog leads a blind man. If a blind man lead a blind man, both fall down in the ditch. Wyclif (Matt. xv. 14.) They thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill. Luk…

to guide the person questioned in making his reply. -- Leading strings, strings by which children are supported when beginning to walk. -- To be in leading strings, to be in a state of infancy or dependence, or under the guidance of others. -- Leading wheel, a wheel situated before the driving wheels of a locomotive…

progress in acquiring knowledge or skill; to receive information or instruction; as, this child learns quickly. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Matt. xi. 29. To learn by heart. See By heart, under Heart. -- To learn by rote, to memorize by repetition without exercise of the understanding.

The portion of movable estate to which the children are entitled upon the death of the father.

state of a legitimate person before the law, by legal means; as, to legitimate a bastard child. To enact a statute of that which he dares not seem to approve, even to legitimate vice. Milton.

A privative adjective suffix, denoting without, destitute of, not having; as witless, childless, fatherless.

A smaller portion or quantity. The children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. Ex. xvi. 17.

The state of an albino, or of a white child of black parents.

To adjust or adapt to a certain level; as, to level remarks to the capacity of children. For all his mind on honor fixed is, To which he levels all his purposes. Spenser.

rivilege conferred by a superior power; permission granted; leave; as, liberty given to a child to play, or to a witness to leave a court, and the like.