father figure

See also: father-figure

English

Alternative forms

• father-figure

Pronunciation

• Audio (Mid-Atlantic)

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Noun

father figure (plural father figures)

1. One who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as equivalent to a father for another person or group of people.
   • 1999 December 13, Ian Traynor, “Obituary: Franjo Tudjman”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 8 July 2014:

     Tudjman, the national father-figure, emerged as the improbable and unexpected victor of the wars of the Yugoslav succession of 1991-99.

   • 2008 July 21, Jonathan Mahler, “Hamdan: Guantánamo's Mystery Man”, in Time, retrieved 8 July 2014:

     Orphaned at a young age, he found a father figure in the confident and committed al-Bahri.

   Coordinate term: mother figure

Translations

one who represents, behaves as, or is regarded as a father

• Danish: faderfigur c
• Dutch: vaderfiguur m
• Finnish: isähahmo
• French: figure de père f
• German: Vaterfigur (de) f, Übervater (de) m
• Latin: patraster m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: farsfigur m

  Nynorsk: farsfigur m

• Polish: autorytet (pl) m
• Portuguese: figura paterna f
• Swedish: fadersgestalt c, fadersfigur c
• Welsh: ffigwr tadol m

See also

• authority figure
• role model

Further reading

• “father figure” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “father figure” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• “father figure”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.