parent

plural parents

1. in pluraloftenA person who raises a child (which they have made, adopted, fostered, taken as their own, etc.).First known use 15th c.

   After both her parents were killed in a forest fire, Sonia was adopted by her aunt and uncle.

   4 more examples

   my trust / Like a good parent, did beget of him / A falsehood in it's contrarie, as great / As my trust was, which had indeede no limit, / A confidence sans bound.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see? His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind […]

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 9:19–20

   The NHS is naturally pro-immunisation, reassuring parents that their babies can easily cope with these jabs.

   2005 August 24, Siobhan O'Neill, The Guardian

   It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. […] It is the starving of the public sector which has been pivotal in America no longer being the land of opportunity – with a child's life prospects more dependent on the income and education of its parents than in other advanced countries.

   2013 June 7, Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, archived from the original on 06 Jan 2021, page 19

   Synonyms: genitor, progenitor · Antonyms: child, offspring

2. in pluraloftenA person who has had a baby; this person in relation to their child or children.
3. A surrogate parent.
4. A third person who has provided DNA samples in an IVF procedure in order to alter faulty genetic material.
5. obsoleteA relative.First known use 15th–18th c.
6. The source or origin of something.First known use 16th c.

   Misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry.

   1785, Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

   1 more example

   Indolence and unalimentary food are the parents of this disease; but to neither are Indians accustomed.

   1789, The Critical Review, Or, Annals of Literature, volume 68, page 341

7. biologyAn organism from which a plant or animal is immediately biologically descended.First known use 17th c.
8. attributiveSponsor, supporter, owner, protector.

   The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.

   1944, Miles Burton, The Three Corpse Trick, chapter 5

   1. attributiveA parent company.First known use 20th c.

      1 more example

      The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them[…]is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.[…]current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate[…]“stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.

      2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68

9. computingThe object from which a child or derived object is descended; a node superior to another node.First known use 20th c.

   Synonyms: mother · Antonyms: child

10. natural sciencesThe nuclide that decays into a daughter nuclide.

present singular third person parents · participle present parenting · participle past parented · past parented

1. intransitivetransitiveTo act as parent, to raise or rear.

   Millennials parent really hard. My kids do way more activities, and the schools have way more going on than when I was a kid.

   2026 September 5, Valeriya Safronova, quoting Elizabeth Shaffer, “AI enters the house: ‘It’s a total game-changer’”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6

   1 more example

   However, even with money and caregivers, the child is left without a parent and most likely without a plan for their emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being. A time will come when you will no longer be able to parent your child, period.

   2006, Natalie Bandlow, Parent to Child the Guide: How to Create a Comprehensive And Meaningful Journal to Prepare Your Child for Life, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 1

   Synonyms: raise, rear

2. computingTo provide a parent object for one or more other objects, which become the children.

1. A surname.