Word.ws English Dictionary

think of the children

think of the children verb: an appeal to suspend rational consideration of an issue owing to its presumptive negative effects on the young and impressionable; usually in ironic or mocking parody of another's argumentum ad passiones or moral panic.

Verb

think of the children (third-person singular simple present thinks of the children, present participle thinking of the children, simple past and past participle thought of the children)

  1. (imperative, usually) An appeal to suspend rational consideration of an issue owing to its presumptive negative effects on the young and impressionable; usually in ironic or mocking parody of another's argumentum ad passiones or moral panic.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:think of the children.
  2. (imperative, usually) A sincere plea to consider the young.
    • Mrs Banks: Katie Nanna, I beseech you. Please reconsider. Think of the children. Think of Mr Banks. He was just beginning to get used to you.1964, Bill Walsh et al., Mary Poppins, Walt Disney Pictures
    • In closing, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to have the courage to set aside the status quo, to think of the children and families of this Nation and to embrace real reform. I urge a 'yes' vote on both sides of the aisle for this rule and the conference report.1996 July 31, Deborah Pryce, “Conference Report on H.R. 3734, Personal Responsibility and Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996”, in Congressional Record, volume 142, United States Government...

Forms of think of the children

third-person singular presentthinks of the children
present participlethinking of the children
past participlethought of the children
pastthought of the children
alternative formwon't someone think of the children
alternative formwhat about the children

Questions about think of the children

What does think of the children mean?
Think of the children means an appeal to suspend rational consideration of an issue owing to its presumptive negative effects on the young and impressionable; usually in ironic or mocking parody of another's argumentum ad passiones or moral panic.
What part of speech is think of the children?
Think of the children is a verb.
What is the past tense of think of the children?
The past tense of think of the children is thought of the children.

Words near think of the children in the dictionary

  1. think no end of oneself
  2. think nothing of
  3. think nothing of it
  4. think of
  5. think of England
  6. think of the children
  7. think on
  8. think on one's feet
  9. think one hung the moon
  10. think one is God's own cousin
  11. think one is it

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: think of the children (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-think of the children.ogg.

Cite this entry: “think of the children.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/think_of_the_children. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.