0 past simple and past participle of foster
1 to take care of a child, usually for a limited time, without being the child's legal parent:
2 to encourage the development or growth of ideas or feelings:
They fostered a strong sense of community, and of belonging to some particular group.
A climate of reductionism fostered the development of technologies that were applied to physiology and to the study of the nervous system.
The new elites of the cities also fostered alliances with elites in other areas, for example, with the landed elites in the countryside.
Environmental policy, fostered by international agreements, gives a better explanation why pollution curbs downward at high income levels.
For the most part, these measures failed to meet the expectations which they fostered.
Moreover, the three-party balance fostered coalition government, making it especially difficult for presidents to pass legislation that would strip the judiciary of its autonomy.
Such team sports fostered male camaraderie and sociability.
There was even less evidence that these organisations fostered democracy since they were highly personalised with no clear internal democratic procedures.
