From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishinfantin‧fant1 /ˈɪnfənt/ ●●○ W3 noun 1 [countable] formalBABY/HAVE A BABY a baby or very young child An infant’s skin is very sensitive.► see thesaurus at baby → Sudden Infant Death Syndrome2 → infantsCOLLOCATIONS – Meaning 1 : a baby or very young childadjectivesa young infantThe never-ending demands of a young infant can be very stressful for parents.a newborn infantNewborn infants only a few hours old can distinguish between different voices.an unborn infantUnborn infants can hear certain sounds while still in the mother’s womb.a premature infant (=born too early)The hospital provides life-saving care to premature infants.a healthy infantAmy gave birth to a healthy infant.a sick infantSick infants are treated in the intensive care nursery.infant + NOUNinfant deathsThe number of infant deaths has fallen significantly.infant mortality (=the number of infants who die)The infant mortality rate doubled during the 1990s.
Examples from the Corpus
infant• The couple have a three-year-old son and an infant daughter.• Her parents both died when she was an infant.• An infant illuminates the foreground so brightly that the background fades.• There are clear differences in speed of learning between infants at this early stage.• I believe the First Mate, Mr Brown, treated me kindly; he consigned my dead infant to its watery fate.• The key similarity for Freud lies in the dominance of unconscious processes both for infants and for early man.• There has been a sharp rise in infant mortality since the drought began.• Doctors and other health experts consider it wise to safeguard infants by giving supplementary vitamins.• Measuring the infant, administering vitamin K and eye ointment, and bathing the infant must be saved for later. 6.• I must give you my personal assurances that this infant is receiving perfect care.• Grandmothers approached us, playful girls and young women with infants slung in cloths across their backs.infantinfant2 adjective [only before noun] 1 → infant school/teacher/class etc2 intended for babies or very young children infant formula milk3 NEWan infant company, organization etc has just started to exist or be developed infant industriesExamples from the Corpus
infant• But because men lack the experience and confidence, infant care training can help.• Improved nutrition, poverty reduction, maternal education and better medical services have combined to halve infant mortality.• It does not require science to inform us that infants require infant care and children require child care.• These prompted a resourceful Hodder editor to ask the Naylors whether their concept could be adapted into books for infant school children.Origin infant1 (1300-1400) French enfant, from Latin infans, from infans “unable to speak”, from fari “to speak” 