1. (

• father ,
• male_parent ,
• begetter

) a male parent (also used as a term of address to your father); "his father was born in Atlanta" ;

2. (

• forefather ,
• father ,
• sire

) the founder of a family; "keep the faith of our forefathers" ;

3. (

• Father ,
• Padre

) `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 ;

4. (

• Church_Father ,
• Father_of_the_Church ,
• Father ,

) (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 ;

5. (

• father ,

) a person who holds an important or distinguished position in some organization; "the tennis fathers ruled in her favor"; "the city fathers endorsed the proposal" ;

6. (

• Father ,
• Father-God ,
• Fatherhood

) God when considered as the first person in the Trinity; "hear our prayers, Heavenly Father" ;

7. (

• founder ,
• beginner ,
• founding_father ,
• father ,

) a person who founds or establishes some institution; "George Washington is the father of his country" ;

8. (

• don ,
• father ,

) the head of an organized crime family ;

1. (

• beget ,
• get ,
• engender ,
• father ,
• mother ,
• sire ,
• generate ,
• bring_forth

) make (offspring) by reproduction; "Abraham begot Isaac"; "John fathered four daughters" ;