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.
seealsoGODFATHER, 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
seealsoFOREFATHERS
3 ~ (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.
seealsoFOUNDINGFATHER
4 (Father) used by Christians to refer to God:
Father, forgive us. * God the Father
5 (Father) (abbreviation Fr) the title of a priest, especially in the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church:
Father Dominic
seealsoHOLYFATHER
IDIOMS
from father to son from one GENERATION of a family to the next
like father, like son used to say that a son's character or behaviour is similar to that of his father
moreatOLD
verb [VN]
1 to become the father of a child by making its mother pregnant:
He claims to have fathered over 20 children.
2 (written) to create new ideas or a new way of doing sth
