"boomerang child" meaning in English

See boomerang child in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈbuːməɹæŋ ˌt͡ʃaɪld/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈbuməɹæŋ ˌt͡ʃaɪld/ [General-American] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-boomerang child.wav Forms: boomerang children [plural]
Etymology: From boomerang + child, a reference to the ability of a boomerang to return to the thrower after being thrown. Head templates: {{en-noun|boomerang children}} boomerang child (plural boomerang children)
  1. (originally US, informal) Synonym of boomerang kid (“a young adult who has moved back into the parental home after a period of independence”) Tags: informal Categories (topical): Children Synonyms: boomerang baby, boomeranger, boomerang kid [synonym, synonym-of] Related terms: failure to launch
    Sense id: en-boomerang_child-en-noun-dqow0aAY Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From boomerang + child, a reference to the ability of a boomerang to return to the thrower after being thrown.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "boomerang children",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "boomerang children"
      },
      "expansion": "boomerang child (plural boomerang children)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "boo‧me‧rang"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Children",
          "orig": "en:Children",
          "parents": [
            "Youth",
            "Age",
            "People",
            "Human",
            "Time",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991 December 2, “Sidney Poitier Blames Parents for Children who Don’t Know how to Survive Tough Times”, in Robert E[dward] Johnson, editor, Jet, volume 81, number 7, Chicago, Ill.: Johnson Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 24:",
          "text": "It has been said that \"when the going gets tough, the tough get going.\" But that saying doesn't set too well with today's generation of so-called \"boomerang children.\" Chicago Sun-Times writer Ellen James Martin describes \"boomerang children\" as \"grown offspring who move away from home for college, a job or marriage. Then something goes amiss and they're back home. Times are harsh. It's very expensive to live.\" [...] Not all \"boomerang children\" are young. The U.S. Census Bureau's study of Living Arrangements of Never-Married Adults In 1990 reports that 23 per cent of the 35–39 age group lived with their parents.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Barbara A. Moody-Hamilton, “Introduction”, in From the Cradle to the Crypt, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Red Lead Press, →ISBN, page xiii:",
          "text": "Of course, in some homes there are, as my grandmother would say, \"good and grown\" children still living at home, and other children, now called \"boomerang children,\" coming back home with their children.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Judy Esposito, Abbi Hattem, “Families and the Family Life Cycle”, in Introduction to Family Counseling: A Case Study Approach, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publishing, →ISBN:",
          "text": "Although Christina's stepsister, Ashley, was successfully launched to college, the fact that she was then living at home with Shoshana made her launching incomplete and therefore she was a boomerang child. Liz's brother, David, could also have been considered a boomerang child. Although he still lived in his own apartment, he was dependent on his parents for financial support and therefore affected their plans as a couple.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, D. Nicole Farris, “Introduction to Boomerang Children: Prevalence and Potential Questions”, in Boomerang Kids: The Demography of Previously Launched Adults (Springer Briefs in Population Studies), Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, section 1.1. (More about Boomerang Children), pages 3–4:",
          "text": "[W]e see the increase of the phenomenon of the \"boomerang child,\" where young adults return to the parental home at least once after the initial departure. Returning to the parental home could have a variety of consequences for both the \"boomerang child\" and the family. Despite the fact that there have been numerous media and academic descriptions and depictions of these boomerang children, it could well be that these children feel to some extent disenfranchised, alone, and alienated from the rest of the world.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of boomerang kid (“a young adult who has moved back into the parental home after a period of independence”)"
      ],
      "id": "en-boomerang_child-en-noun-dqow0aAY",
      "links": [
        [
          "boomerang kid",
          "boomerang kid#English"
        ],
        [
          "young",
          "young#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "adult",
          "adult#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "moved",
          "move#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "parental",
          "parental"
        ],
        [
          "home",
          "home#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "period",
          "period"
        ],
        [
          "independence",
          "independence"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(originally US, informal) Synonym of boomerang kid (“a young adult who has moved back into the parental home after a period of independence”)"
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "failure to launch"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "boomerang baby"
        },
        {
          "word": "boomeranger"
        },
        {
          "extra": "a young adult who has moved back into the parental home after a period of independence",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "boomerang kid"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbuːməɹæŋ ˌt͡ʃaɪld/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbuməɹæŋ ˌt͡ʃaɪld/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-boomerang child.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0d/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-boomerang_child.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-boomerang_child.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0d/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-boomerang_child.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-boomerang_child.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "boomerang child"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From boomerang + child, a reference to the ability of a boomerang to return to the thrower after being thrown.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "boomerang children",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "boomerang children"
      },
      "expansion": "boomerang child (plural boomerang children)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "boo‧me‧rang"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "failure to launch"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Children"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991 December 2, “Sidney Poitier Blames Parents for Children who Don’t Know how to Survive Tough Times”, in Robert E[dward] Johnson, editor, Jet, volume 81, number 7, Chicago, Ill.: Johnson Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 24:",
          "text": "It has been said that \"when the going gets tough, the tough get going.\" But that saying doesn't set too well with today's generation of so-called \"boomerang children.\" Chicago Sun-Times writer Ellen James Martin describes \"boomerang children\" as \"grown offspring who move away from home for college, a job or marriage. Then something goes amiss and they're back home. Times are harsh. It's very expensive to live.\" [...] Not all \"boomerang children\" are young. The U.S. Census Bureau's study of Living Arrangements of Never-Married Adults In 1990 reports that 23 per cent of the 35–39 age group lived with their parents.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Barbara A. Moody-Hamilton, “Introduction”, in From the Cradle to the Crypt, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Red Lead Press, →ISBN, page xiii:",
          "text": "Of course, in some homes there are, as my grandmother would say, \"good and grown\" children still living at home, and other children, now called \"boomerang children,\" coming back home with their children.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Judy Esposito, Abbi Hattem, “Families and the Family Life Cycle”, in Introduction to Family Counseling: A Case Study Approach, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publishing, →ISBN:",
          "text": "Although Christina's stepsister, Ashley, was successfully launched to college, the fact that she was then living at home with Shoshana made her launching incomplete and therefore she was a boomerang child. Liz's brother, David, could also have been considered a boomerang child. Although he still lived in his own apartment, he was dependent on his parents for financial support and therefore affected their plans as a couple.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, D. Nicole Farris, “Introduction to Boomerang Children: Prevalence and Potential Questions”, in Boomerang Kids: The Demography of Previously Launched Adults (Springer Briefs in Population Studies), Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, section 1.1. (More about Boomerang Children), pages 3–4:",
          "text": "[W]e see the increase of the phenomenon of the \"boomerang child,\" where young adults return to the parental home at least once after the initial departure. Returning to the parental home could have a variety of consequences for both the \"boomerang child\" and the family. Despite the fact that there have been numerous media and academic descriptions and depictions of these boomerang children, it could well be that these children feel to some extent disenfranchised, alone, and alienated from the rest of the world.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of boomerang kid (“a young adult who has moved back into the parental home after a period of independence”)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "boomerang kid",
          "boomerang kid#English"
        ],
        [
          "young",
          "young#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "adult",
          "adult#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "moved",
          "move#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "parental",
          "parental"
        ],
        [
          "home",
          "home#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "period",
          "period"
        ],
        [
          "independence",
          "independence"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(originally US, informal) Synonym of boomerang kid (“a young adult who has moved back into the parental home after a period of independence”)"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "boomerang baby"
        },
        {
          "word": "boomeranger"
        },
        {
          "extra": "a young adult who has moved back into the parental home after a period of independence",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "boomerang kid"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbuːməɹæŋ ˌt͡ʃaɪld/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbuməɹæŋ ˌt͡ʃaɪld/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-boomerang child.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0d/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-boomerang_child.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-boomerang_child.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0d/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-boomerang_child.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-boomerang_child.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "boomerang child"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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