I. ˈfäthə(r), ˈfȧthə(r noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English fader, from Old English fæder; akin to Old High German fater father, Old Norse fathir, Gothic fadar, Latin pater, Greek patēr, Sanskrit pitṛ
1.
a. : a man who has begotten a child : a male parent : sire
b. capitalized
(1) : god , deity II 1b
our Father who art in heaven — Mt 6:9 (Revised Standard Version)
(2) : the first person of the Trinity
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
2. : a male ancestor more remote than a parent : forefather , ancestor
3. : one related to another in a way paralleling or suggesting the relationship of father to child: as
a. : one to whom a filial affection and respect are usually due : adoptive father : father-in-law , stepfather : a male relative who assumes the rights and obligations as well as the title of a father
b. : confessor 3
c. : one who is the marked and usually revered guide or most notable influence in another's spiritual, intellectual, or artistic development ; also : one who is in a position of authority as guide and benefactor
he had become a father to the village — Keith Ellis
d. : an old man — used as a respectful form of address
4. often capitalized : an early Christian writer accepted widely or generally as a trustworthy witness to or expositor of the early history or teachings of the church
5.
a. : one that originates or institutes : one that first constructs, designs, or frames
the father of modern radio
father of science ficton — D.H.Menzel
the influence of Babylonian and Egyptian mathematics upon the fathers of Greek science, especially Pythagoras — Times Literary Supplement
b. : one of the first American colonists : pilgrim father
c. : an early American statesman ; especially : one of the creators of the Constitution
the founding fathers
d. : source , origin
the wish is father to the thought
such an attitude of mind may easily become the father of criticism — V.L.Parrington
the doctrine that strife is the father of all things — M.R.Cohen
e. : prototype
a totem board at least fifteen feet high … the father of all totem boards — Daisy Bates
6. : any of various ecclesiastics — used in direct address and as a title prefixed to the name (as of a priest in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, or Eastern Orthodox churches, and sometimes a deacon or a superior of a monastic house)
7. : one of the leading men of a country, city, or council — usually used in plural
four proposals were before the city fathers — Wayne Robinson
surrounded by a council of the town fathers — Frank Yerby
8. : the oldest or the presiding member of an associated group (as a society, a profession, or a legislative assembly)
the father of the chapel in a printing plant
the father of the bar
II. transitive verb
( fathered ; fathered ; fathering -th(ə)riŋ ; fathers )
Etymology: Middle English faderen, from fader father — more at father I
1.
a. : to make oneself the father of : beget
father three strapping sons
cowards father cowards — Shakespeare
b. : to make oneself the father or author of by adoption or acknowledgment
professed himself willing to have fathered it — Richard Garnett †1906
c. : to be the founder, creator, or author of : originate
though he was no great poet he fathered a school of notable poets
fathered a plan for improving the city's schools
d. : to be at the center, base, or source of
this moral fault which fathers democratic politics — T.V.Smith
e. : to produce by educating or training
one of the most promising doctors the school had ever fathered
2.
a. : to fix the paternity or origin of
investigation fathered the child upon the lover
like caterpillars … not to be tracked or fathered — William Wordsworth
b. : to place responsibility for the origin or cause of
father a crime upon the first likely suspect
3. archaic : to care for or look after as a father might
4. : impose , fasten , foist
bent upon fathering a scurrilous significance upon a perfectly innocent remark
5. now dialect England : to bear a strong resemblance to the father of (oneself)