Child"hood (?), n. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
1.
The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty.
I have walked before you from my childhood.
1. Sam. xii. 2.
2.
Children, taken collectively.
[R.]
The well-governed childhood of this realm.
Sir. W. Scott.
3.
The commencement; the first period.
The childhood of our joy.
Shak.
Second childhood, the state of being feeble and incapable from old age.
© Webster 1913.