fathering

Verb

father (third-person singular simple present fathers, present participle fathering, simple past and past participle fathered)

1. To be a father to; to sire.
   • Well go too, we'll haue no Baſtards liue, / Eſpecially ſince Charles muſt Father it.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
2. (figuratively) To give rise to.
   • Cowards father Cowards & Baſe things Syre Bace;1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
3. To act as a father; to support and nurture.
   • I good youth, / And rather Father thee, then Maſter thee:1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
4. To provide with a father.
   • Thinke you, I am no ſtronger then my Sex / Being ſo Father'd, and ſo Husbanded?1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
5. To adopt as one's own.
   • Kept company with men of wit / Who often fathered what he writ.1713, Imitation of Horace, Jonathan Swift, Book I. Ep. VII

See all 23 meanings of father