father

plural fathers

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

   My friend Tony just became a father.

   5 more examples

   My father was a strong influence on me.

   The Pꝛouerbes of Solomon: A wiſe ſonne maketh a glad father: but a fooliſh sonne is the heauineſſe of his mother.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 10:1

   When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit, Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   Ah, but how beautiful (my baby boy) is! And he is mine, mine for ever. Even if he hates me he will be mine. He cannot help it, he is made out of me; I am his father.

   1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread, chapter 7

   My personal success or failure is insignificant; the rise or fall of the nation is my responsibility and must not be shirked. Upon introspection, I feel I am firmer than ever in confidence that the Communists will be defeated. These are feelings which will comfort Father's soul in Heaven.

   1980 August 1 [1980 May 1], Ching-kuo Chiang, “President Chiang Ching-kuo continues his period of mourning and finds that visits to countryside and people give him renewed strength”, in Taiwan Today, archived from the original on 17 May 2020

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.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 2:10

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   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,

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 4:16

3. A term of respectful address for an elderly man.

   Come, father; you can sit here.

4. A term of respectful address for a priest.

   Bless you, good father friar!

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

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

   The child is father to the man.

   3 more examples

   My brother was a father to me after my parents got divorced.

   I was a father to the pooꝛe: and the cauſe which I knewe not, I ſearched out.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 29:16

   So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and loꝛd of all his houſe, and a ruler thꝛoughout all the land of Egypt.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 45:8

6. A pioneering figure in a particular field.

   Albert Einstein is the father of modern physics.

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

   “The Father of All Battles” On March 23, 1991, a band of armed insurgents attacked the town of Bomaru […]

   2012, Zubairu Wai, Epistemologies of African Conflicts: Violence, Evolutionism, and the War in Sierra Leone, Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 93

   2 more examples

   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 […]

   1991, The Nairobi Law Monthly

   "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."

   2002, Financial Management

   Synonyms: mother and granddaddy

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,[…]

   1649, Richard Lovelace, Amyntor's Grove, His Chloris, Arigo, and Gratiana. An Elogie., Thomas Harper, page 88

9. ChristianityA member of a church council.

   Remember that the fathers of Vatican II had rejected the first draft of the constitution on revelation entirely.

   2014, Ronald D. Witherup, The Word of God at Vatican II: Exploring Dei Verbum, →ISBN, page 31

   2 more examples

   In proceeding in this fashion, the fathers assembled at Pisa were following the generally accepted canonistic teaching of the day […]

   2003, Francis Oakley, The Conciliarist Tradition: Constitutionalism in the Catholic Church, 1300–1870, →ISBN, pages 37–8

   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.

   2009, Peter Chidi Okuma, Empowerment of the Catholic Laity in the Nigerian Political Situation […], →ISBN, page 177

10. computingThe 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.

    2004, Ray Bradley, The Ultimate Computing Glossary for Advanced Level, page 31

    1 more example

    The file from which the father was developed with the transaction files of the appropriate day is the grandfather.

    2007, O. Ray Whittington, Patrick R. Delaney, Wiley CPA Exam Review 2008: Auditing and Attestation, page 556

present singular third person fathers · participle present fathering · participle past fathered · past fathered

1. To be a father to; to sire.

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

   1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v], page 117, column 2

2. figurativelyTo give rise to.

   Cowards father Cowards & Baſe things Syre Bace;

   1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 387, column 1

3. To act as a father; to support and nurture.

   I good youth, / And rather Father thee, then Maſter thee:

   1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 390, column 2

   1 more example

   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?

   2021 [2001], John Eldredge, “John Answers Your Wild at Heart Questions”, in Wild at Heart, Expanded edition, Nelson Books, →ISBN, page 220

4. To provide with a father.

   Thinke you, I am no ſtronger then my Sex / Being ſo Father'd, and ſo Husbanded?

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 116, column 2

   1 more example

   The relations of the sexes were so loose and vague that children could not be fathered on any particular man.

   1906, James George Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, volume 2, page 209

5. To adopt as one's own.

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

   1713, Imitation of Horace, Jonathan Swift, Book I. Ep. VII

alternative Fr.

1. ChristianityGod, the father of Creation.
2. ChristianityGod the Father, who eternally begets the Son.
3. One's father.

   I will only do what Father asks.

4. WiccaOne of the triune gods of the Horned God in Wicca, representing a man, younger than the elderly Sage and older than the boyish Master.

   ...and our Lord as Master, Father, and Sage.

   2002, A. J. Drew, Wicca for Couples: Making Magick Together, page 89

   1 more example

   In respect to our Lord (God), these are the less known Master, Father, and Sage.

   2003, A. J. Drew, Patricia Telesco, God/Goddess: Exploring and Celebrating the Two Sides of Wiccan Deity, page 38

plural Fathers · alternative Fr.

1. ChristianityA title given to priests.

   Father Thomas was a good priest.

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   Father Smith, the social action director of the archdiocese, and Father William Killian, executive editor of the archdiocesan weekly, went to Brownsville, joined the field workers in picketing, attended several rallies, and marched in an eight-mile “pilgrimage.” They were arrested by local authorities for trespassing on private property and sent back to San Antonio. When Fathers Smith and Killian returned to the valley in early 1967 in defiance of Lucey’s specific orders, Lucey removed Smith as social action director and demoted Killian and several other activist priests for violating protocol.

   2006, David A. Badillo, “Powers of the Prelates: Urban Hierarchies Contrasted”, in Latinos and the New Immigrant Church, Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 73

   On a merchant ship, Father Sinclair had to do safety drills every 10 days. On a fishing vessel, it’s monthly, and there is no requirement to check the log to see if the drill has been done or done correctly.

   2025 October 21, Rose George, “‘I knew in my head we were dying’: the last voyage of the Scandies Rose”, in The Guardian

2. ChristianityOne of the chief ecclesiastical authorities of the first centuries after Christ.

   the Latin, Greek, or apostolic Fathers

3. A title given to the personification of a force of nature or abstract concept, such as Father Time or Father Frost.
4. historicalA senator of Ancient Rome.

   Claudius put a stop to these executions, and the Conscript Fathers, repenting, placed Gallienus among the divi , — which was equivalent to the maintenance of his acts.

   1886, Victor Duruy, John Pentland Mahaffy, History of Rome, page 275

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   When Romulus had left the earth and had become a god, the Fathers met together and appointed intermediate kings from the senate, to reign in turn each for five days, in the place of the king, till a new king should be chosen.

   1886, Wilhelm Ihne, Early Rome, page 37

   His duties were to command the army, to perform certain sacrifices (as high priest), and to preside over the assembly of the Fathers of the families, which was called the Senate, i. e. an assembly of old men (Senex).

   1890, Robert Franklin Pennell, Ancient Rome from the Earliest Times Down to 476 A.D., page 9