father

fa|ther1 [ `faðər ] noun count ***

1. ) your male parent. People often call their father Dad or, especially if they are young children, Daddy. In the past, people often called their father Father or Papa:

My father taught me to drive.

George suspected that he was not the father of Emily's child.

The thought of becoming a father terrified Mark.

someone's real/natural father: I never knew my real father.

a father of two/three/four etc.: The 32-year-old father of three denies the charges.

be like a father to someone: Tom has been like a father to me.

2. ) Father used for talking to or about a priest, especially a Roman Catholic priest:

I need your help, Father.

Father Peter said that that wasn't a sin.

a ) Father used for talking to or about God in the Christian religion:

Heavenly/Almighty Father: Heavenly Father, please hear our prayers.

3. ) fathers plural people in your family who lived long before you:

Spanish was the language of their fathers.

the father of something

the man who first started something or first did it successfully:

He is often seen as the father of the space program.

from father to son

from one GENERATION or period in history to the next:

These traditional crafts were passed on from father to son.

like father, like son

used for saying that a man or boy has the same attitudes as his father or behaves in the same way

father

fa|ther 2 [ `faðər ] verb transitive

if a man fathers a child, he makes a woman pregnant and becomes a father