FATHER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Father

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/fˈɑðər/ Listen

Father

noun

1.

A male parent (also used as a term of address to your father). Synonyms: begetter, male parent. Antonyms: female parent, mother.

2.

The founder of a family. Synonyms: forefather, sire.

3.

'Father' is a term of address for priests in some churches (especially the Roman Catholic Church or the Orthodox Catholic Church); 'Padre' is frequently used in the military. Synonym: Padre.

4.

(Christianity) any of about 70 theologians in the period from the 2nd to the 7th century whose writing established and confirmed official church doctrine; in the Roman Catholic Church some were later declared saints and became Doctor of the Church; the best known Latin Church Fathers are Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Jerome; those who wrote in Greek include Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and John Chrysostom. Synonyms: Church Father, Father of the Church.

5.

A person who holds an important or distinguished position in some organization. "The city fathers endorsed the proposal"

6.

God when considered as the first person in the Trinity. Synonyms: Father-God, Fatherhood.

7.

A person who founds or establishes some institution. Synonyms: beginner, founder, founding father.

8.

The head of an organized crime family. Synonym: don.

verb

(past & past part. fathered; pres. part. fathering)

1.

Make children. Synonyms: beget, bring forth, engender, generate, get, mother, sire. "Men often father children but don't recognize them"

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Antonyms of 'Father'

Etymology of 'Father'

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WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Father" Quotes from Famous Books

... that this was the haunted house of father red-cap, and called to mind the story of Peechy Prauw. The evening was approaching, and the light falling dubiously among these places, gave a melancholy tone to the scene, well calculated to foster ...

— Tales of a Traveller • Washington Irving

... it please the Madonna!" cried Paoluccio. "A relation? Thank God we have always been honest people in my father's house! No, it was not a relation. She came of a crooked race. Her mother took a lover, and her father killed him, here on the Frascati road, and almost killed her too; but the law gave him the right ...

— Whosoever Shall Offend • F. Marion Crawford

... Christ, the Father's Son, Who God's true image bore, Of Virgin born, in low estate Our human ...

— Hymns of the Greek Church - Translated with Introduction and Notes • John Brownlie

... barons chose certain devices for their seals; but the same device was not used by the members of a family, nor was it handed from father to son, until armorial ...

— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 28, May 20, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various

... the Sepulchre where the child was layd; there was none of the Justices, none of any reputation of the towne, nor any of the common people, but went to see this strange sight. Amongst them all the father of the child remooved with his owne hands the stone of the Sepulchre, and found his Sonne rising up after his dead and soporiferous sleepe, whom when he beheld, he imbraced him in his armes, and presented ...

— The Golden Asse • Lucius Apuleius

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