pappa bear

Noun

papa bear (plural papa bears)

1. (informal) A male bear who has sired cubs.
2. (broadly, slang) A man, especially a father, who is extremely protective of a child or children.
   • Her husband, James, worked in the mills of U.S. Sugar. Once the cane season was finished, he followed harvests as a packinghouse foreman. He was a papa bear in the wide eyes of his children, strong arms and a round belly, a man whose talents over a kitchen stove braising oxtails and simmering stews...2012, Bryan Mealer, chapter 5, in Muck City, Crown Archetype, page 82
3. (colloquial) One's father.
   • “And you thought I brought home nothing for my papa bear.”2015, Daniel Kraus, chapter 16, in The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch: At the edge of empire, Volume I, Simon & Schuster, page 283

   Synonyms:

   dad, pa, ayr, ba, baba, da, dada, daddio, daddy, father