infant

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A minor.

   Thomas Humphrey Doleman died the 30th of August 1712, an infant, intestate and without issue; Lewis the next nephew died the 17th of April 1716, an infant about sixteen years old, having left his mother Mary Webb, ...

2. 2
   noun

   A noble or aristocratic youth.

   Retourned home, the royall Infant fell / Into her former fitt [...].

3. 3
   adj

   Of or pertaining to the earlier half of primary school education.

   Primary schooling in Ireland comprises two Infant years, which are equivalent to pre-school in other countries , and six grades or classes.

4. 4
   adj

   small, being near its source.

   Leaving Nantyglo, a small station at an altitude of 1,030 ft. with the platform on the eastern side, the train runs northwards over former G.W.R. metals, with the infant River Ebbw, a little more than a yard wide, on the west.

5. 5
   verb

   To bear or bring forth (a child); to produce, in general.

   This worthy motto, "No bishop, no king," is […] infanted out of the same fears.

6. 6
   noun

   a very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk

7. 7
   noun

   A very young human being, from birth to somewhere between six months and two years of age after birth, needing almost constant care and attention.

8. 8
   noun

   A student in an infant school or the first part of a primary school.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English infaunt, borrowed from Latin īnfantem, accusative masculine singular of īnfāns, nominal use of the adjective meaning 'not able to speak', from īn- (“not”) + fāns, present participle of for (“to speak”). The verb is from Anglo-Norman enfanter, from the same Latin source. Doublet of infante.