/ ˈfɑːðə(r); NAmE / noun , verb
■ noun
1.
a male parent of a child or an animal; a person who is acting as the father to a child :
Ben's a wonderful father.
You've been like a father to me.
Our new boss is a father of three (= he has three children) .
He was a wonderful father to both his natural and adopted children.
( old-fashioned )
Father, I cannot lie to you.
—see also godfather , grandfather , stepfather
2.
fathers [ pl. ] ( literary ) a person's ancestors (= people who are related to you who lived in the past) :
the land of our fathers
—see also forefathers
3.
father (of sth) the first man to introduce a new way of thinking about sth or of doing sth :
Henry Moore is considered to be the father of modern British sculpture.
—see also founding father
4.
Father used by Christians to refer to God :
Father, forgive us.
God the Father
5.
Father ( abbr. Fr ) the title of a priest, especially in the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church :
Father Dominic
—see also Holy Father
•
IDIOMS
- from father to son
- like father, like son
—more at old , wish noun
■ verb [ vn ]
1.
to become the father of a child by making a woman pregnant :
He claims to have fathered over 20 children.
2.
to create new ideas or a new way of doing sth
••
WORD ORIGIN
Old English fæder , of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vader and German Vater , from an Indo-European root shared by Latin pater and Greek patēr .