Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - father

~1 n 1 »PARENT« a male parent  (Ask your father to help you. | Andrew was very excited about becoming a father. | a father of two/three/four etc (=a man with two, three etc children))  (The driver, a father of four, escaped uninjured.) 2 »PRIEST« a priest, especially in the Roman Catholic church  (I have sinned, Father.) 3 fathers people related to you who lived a long time ago; ancestors  (We must honour the customs of our fathers.)  (- see also forefathers) 4 »GOD« Father a way of addressing or talking about God, used in the Christian religion  (our Heavenly Father) 5 father figure an older man who you trust and respect 6 the father of sth the man who was responsible for starting something  (Freud is the father of psychoanalysis.) 7 like father like son used to say that a boy behaves like his father, especially when this behaviour is bad 8 a bit of how's your father BrE informal humorous the act of having sex  (- see also city father, Pilgrim Fathers) ~2 v 1 to make a woman have a child  (It was rumoured that the bishop had fathered two children.) 2 to start an important new idea or system  (Bevan fathered the concept of the National Health Service.) father sth on sb phr v especially BrE to claim that someone is responsible for inventing or thinking of something  (theories fathered on Freud by his critics)