parent

To act as parent, to raise or rear.

Noun

  1. A person who raises a child (which they have made, adopted, fostered, taken as their own, etc.).
    • After both her parents were killed in a forest fire, Sonia was adopted by her aunt and uncle.
    • my trust / Like a good parent, did beget of him / A falsehood in it's contrarie, as great / As my trust was, which had indeede no limit, / A confidence sans bound. - 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The...
    • And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see? His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind […] - 1611, The Holy...

    Synonyms: genitor progenitor

    Antonyms: child offspring

  2. A person who has had a baby; this person in relation to their child or children.
  3. A surrogate parent.
  4. A third person who has provided DNA samples in an IVF procedure in order to alter faulty genetic material.
  5. A relative.
  6. The source or origin of something.
    • Misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry. - 1785, Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia:
    • Indolence and unalimentary food are the parents of this disease; but to neither are Indians accustomed. - 1789, The Critical Review, Or, Annals of Literature, volume 68, page 341:
  7. An organism from which a plant or animal is immediately biologically descended.
  8. Sponsor, supporter, owner, protector.
    • The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently...

    1. A parent company.

      • The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them[…]is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.[…]current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to...
  9. The object from which a child or derived object is descended; a node superior to another node.

    Synonyms: mother

    Antonyms: child

  10. The nuclide that decays into a daughter nuclide.

Origin

From Middle English parent, borrowed from Anglo-Norman parent, Middle French parent, from Latin parentem, accusative of parēns (“parent”), present participle of pariō (“to breed, bring forth”).

Forms

parents

Related

antepartum parous -parous post-partum

Derived

adoptive parent alloparent bioparent birth parent birthparent bonus parent buddy parent co-parent co-parent-in-law cottage parent curling parent Disney parent foreparent foster parent godparent gold star parent grandparent guideparent helicopter parent heliparent houseparent interparent iPad parent merparent

Verb

  1. To act as parent, to raise or rear.
    • However, even with money and caregivers, the child is left without a parent and most likely without a plan for their emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being. A time will come when you will no longer be able...

    Synonyms: raise rear

  2. To provide a parent object for one or more other objects, which become the children.

Forms

parents parenting parented

Related

foster

Derived

parenting parentize parentify