father

Less common meanings

6. 6
   have a childverbtransitive

   To beget a child as the male parent; to sire.

   The champion stallion fathered dozens of foals over his career.

   He went on to father two more children with his second wife.

   UsagePattern: father a child with someone.

   Similarsire, beget

7. 7
   stand-in parentnouncountable

   A person who fills the role of a father for someone, regardless of any actual parental relationship.

   After the divorce, his coach became a second father to him.

   The sergeant was a father to the young soldiers under his command.

   UsageSet pattern: be a father to someone; also a second father.

   Similarmentor, guardian, protector

   Note

   The working construction is be a father to someone, as in the King James Bible of 1611: "I was a father to the poor." The proverb "The child is father to the man" turns the same pattern into a paradox, in which the child shapes the adult. No parental tie is implied. The phrase describes conduct, much as the verb of nurturing does. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. bridwell.omeka.net
   • The King James Bible contains this quotation; Job speaks it in Job 29:16. en.wikisource.org
   • The proverb is attested with the wording 'The child is father to the man.' en.wikisource.org
   • The proverb figuratively describes childhood shaping adulthood, without implying literal parenthood. en.wikisource.org
8. 8
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To give rise to something; to be the origin or source of it.

   The engineer who fathered the project never lived to see the bridge finished.

   Hard times often father strange alliances.

   Similarspawn, generate, breed, engender, beget

   Note

   Shakespeare's Cymbeline shows the figurative verb at its most compact: "Cowards father cowards and base things sire base." There father and sire are near-synonyms, both meaning to produce one's like. The subject is often a thing rather than a person, such as an event or an idea, and the object is an outcome. That keeps it apart from the literal siring sense. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • William Shakespeare wrote Cymbeline. gutenberg.org
   • The quotation occurs in Cymbeline; Belarius speaks it in Act 4, Scene 2. shakespeare.mit.edu
   • The quotation is attested as an example of figurative father meaning to give rise to; its parallel verbs describe producing one's like. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To act as a father toward someone; to give the support, care, and guidance a parent gives.

   He fathered the new recruits, steering them away from trouble.

   Through those lonely school years, the kindly headmaster did his best to father him, giving him the care he never got at home.

   Similarmentor, nurture, parent, guide

   Note

   Here the verb is about care, not begetting. In Shakespeare's Cymbeline a speaker would "rather father thee than master thee," setting a father's protection against a master's command. That contrast is the clearest way to hear the sense. Someone can be fathered in this way by a person with no blood tie at all, unlike the siring sense. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • William Shakespeare wrote Cymbeline. gutenberg.org
   • The quoted words occur in Cymbeline; Caius Lucius speaks them to Imogen, disguised as Fidele, in Act 4, Scene 2. shakespeare.mit.edu
   • The passage contrasts fatherly care with a master's authority. shakespeare.mit.edu
10. 10
    old mannoundatedcountable

    A respectful form of address for an elderly man.

    "You've walked far today, father. Come in and warm yourself," she said to the gray-haired stranger.

    "Tell us of the old days, father," the villagers urged the elder.

    Similarsir, elder, grandpa

11. 11
    greatest of allnouncountable

    The most extreme or most significant instance of something, outdoing all others of its kind.

    The morning after the party, he woke up with the father of all hangovers.

    Reporters called the overrun the father of all budget scandals.

    UsageSet frame: the father of all plus a plural noun, at home in journalism; the mother of all is the more common version.

    Similarmother, granddaddy

    Note

    "The father of all battles" appears in The Nairobi Law Monthly in 1991. Financial Management in 2002 doubles it to "the mother and father of all recessions." Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The Nairobi Law Monthly contains the phrase "the father of all battles" in 1991. en.wiktionary.org
    • Financial Management contains "the mother and father of all recessions" in 2002. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    church councilnouncountable

    A member of a church council convened to decide questions of doctrine or practice.

    The fathers at the council debated the wording of the creed.

    Every father present at the synod signed the final decree, though some did so grudgingly.

    Note

    A churchman's term, nearly always plural and tied to a named gathering: the fathers assembled at Pisa, the fathers of the synod, the fathers of Vatican II. The members in question are typically bishops. The phrase treats the council as one deliberating body: the fathers reject a draft, follow a teaching, speak on a question. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Members of the council at Pisa are called fathers. en.wikipedia.org
    • Members of a synod are called fathers. vatican.va
    • Members of the Second Vatican Council are called fathers. vatican.va
    • Council members are typically bishops. vatican.va
13. 13
    verbtransitive

    To adopt something, such as an idea, a work, or a child, as one's own.

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

    1713, Imitation of Horace, Jonathan Swift

    Similaradopt, champion, sponsor, embrace

    Oppositedisown, abandon, repudiate

    Note

    Adoption of a work rather than a child, and often a claim of authorship. Jonathan Swift's Imitation of Horace (1713) says the poet kept company with men of wit "who often fathered what he writ," claiming his writing as their own. The verb can therefore carry a hint of taking credit. It can equally describe openly sponsoring an idea that someone else began. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Jonathan Swift wrote the imitation of Horace's Book I, Epistle VII, first published in 1713. publish.uwo.ca
    • The poem describes Swift keeping company with men who claimed his writing as their own; the quotation is accurate with modernized spelling. gutenberg.org
14. 14
    verbtransitive

    To provide someone with a father.

    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

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

    1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”

    Note

    Usually met as a past participle, and the grammar shows who supplies the father. In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar a speaker draws strength from "being so fathered, and so husbanded," meaning given such a father. James George Frazer's Adonis, Attis, Osiris, in its revised 1907 edition, uses fathered on: children who "could not be fathered on any particular man" could not be assigned to one. Neither use describes a man begetting a child. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, a speaker invokes being fathered and husbanded as grounds for strength; the speaker is Portia. shakespeare.mit.edu
    • James George Frazer's Adonis, Attis, Osiris had a revised edition in 1907. dev.gutenberg.org
    • Frazer's phrase means assigning paternity to a particular man. gutenberg.org
    • Neither quoted construction means that a man begets a child. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    early church writernouncountable

    One of the great teachers and writers of early Christianity, whose works the Church accepts as carrying authority; usually written with a capital F.

    Her dissertation traces how the Greek Fathers interpreted the Book of Genesis.

    Each Father in this anthology of early Christian writing gets a brief introduction and a list of his major works.

    UsageMostly plural with the, often after a language: the Church Fathers, the Greek Fathers.

    Note

    The capital is shared with the title for a priest, but the grammar tells them apart. A priest is Father before his name (Father Brown); these early writers are spoken of as a body, the Fathers, and are not addressed by the title. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The Church Fathers were early Christian writers. en.wikipedia.org
    • Father Brown is a priest, providing a valid example of the priestly title. en.wikipedia.org
16. 16
    noun

    The archived version of a file immediately preceding the current one, itself derived from the still older grandfather copy.