father

1. 1

   A male parent, especially of a human; a male who parents a child (which he has sired, adopted, fostered, etc.).

   • My father was a strong influence on me.
   • My friend Tony just became a father.
2. 2

   A male ancestor more remote than a parent; a progenitor; especially, a first ancestor.

   • So Dauid ſlept with his fathers, and was buried in the citie of Dauid.
   • Therefoꝛe it is of faith, that it might bee by grace; to the ende the pꝛomiſe might be ſure to all the ſeede, not to that onely which is of the Law, but to that alſo which is of the faith of Abꝛaham, who is the father of vs all,
3. 3

   A term of respectful address for an elderly man.

   • Come, father; you can sit here.
4. 4

   A term of respectful address for a priest.

   • Bless you, good father friar!
5. 5

   A person who plays the role of a father in some way.

   • My brother was a father to me after my parents got divorced.
   • The child is father to the man.
6. 6

   A pioneering figure in a particular field.

   • Albert Einstein is the father of modern physics.
7. 7

   Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind.

   • Soon after the announcement of this year's election results, Mereka said that "the father of all battles had just begun." His dispute with Muite goes back to March last year […]
   • "If UK GDP slows by 1 per cent, there is the mother and father of all recessions. It was exciting, but very bizarre, working in such an environment."
8. 8

   Something inanimate that begets.

   • But may the Sun and gentle weather, / When you are both growne ripe together, / Load you with fruit, such as your Father / From you with all the joyes doth gather: / And may you when one branch is dead / Graft ſuch another in it's ſtead,[…]
9. 9

   A member of a church council.

   • In proceeding in this fashion, the fathers assembled at Pisa were following the generally accepted canonistic teaching of the day […]
   • On the part of the fathers of the synod, over 50 bishops, from every continent, spoke on different ‘group forms’ of the lay apostolate, whereas about 38 fathers made their own interventions in writing to the General Secretary.
10. 10

    The archived older version of a file that immediately precedes the current version, and was itself derived from the grandfather.

    • Three generations of file are usually kept, being the grandfather, father and son files.
    • The file from which the father was developed with the transaction files of the appropriate day is the grandfather.

syn. ayr · ba · baba · da · dad · dada · daddio · daddy · father · Father · fatherling · governor

ant. mother · son · daughter · child

1. 1

   To be a father to; to sire.

   • Well go too, we'll haue no Baſtards liue, / Eſpecially ſince Charles muſt Father it.
2. 2

   To give rise to.figuratively

   • Cowards father Cowards & Baſe things Syre Bace;
3. 3

   To act as a father; to support and nurture.

   • I good youth, / And rather Father thee, then Maſter thee:
   • What have you learned since writing Wild at Heart that you would now go back and change (if you could) about how you fathered your three boys?
4. 4

   To provide with a father.

   • Thinke you, I am no ſtronger then my Sex / Being ſo Father'd, and ſo Husbanded?
   • The relations of the sexes were so loose and vague that children could not be fathered on any particular man.
5. 5

   To adopt as one's own.

   • Kept company with men of wit / Who often fathered what he writ.