uncle

Noun (1)

uncle (plural uncles)

1. The brother or brother-in-law of one’s parent.
   • And it was while all were passionately intent upon the pleasing and snake-like progress of their uncle that a young girl in furs, ascending the stairs two at a time, peeped perfunctorily into the nursery as she passed the hallway—and halted amazed.1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 14
2. The male cousin of one’s parent.
3. (endearing) Used as a fictive kinship title for a close male friend of one's parent or parents.
4. (euphemistic) Used as a title for the male companion to one's (usually unmarried) parent.
5. (figuratively) A source of advice, encouragement, or help.
6. (UK, dated, informal) A pawnbroker.
   • December 1843, William Makepeace Thackeray, "Grant in Paris" (review), in Fraser's Magazine
     A chain hangs out of the pocket of his velvet waistcoat , by which we may conclude that he has a watch , though we have known many gents whose watches were at their uncle's (as the fashionable term for the...
7. (especially, parts of UK and South Asia) An affectionate term for a man of an older generation than oneself, especially a friend of one's parents, by means of fictive kin.

   Synonyms:

   uncleji

8. (Southern US, archaic, slang) An older African-American male.
   • Plain old uncle as he [Socrates] was, with his great ears, — an immense talker.1850, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Representative Men
9. (Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, informal) Any middle-aged or elderly man older than the speaker and/or listener.

Interjection

1. (US, colloquial) A cry used to indicate surrender.

Verb

uncle (third-person singular simple present uncles, present participle uncling, simple past and past participle uncled)

1. (colloquial, transitive) To address somebody by the term uncle.
2. (colloquial, intransitive) To act like, or as, an uncle.
   • Betelgeuse Five, where he both fathered and uncled Ford1979, Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Noun (2) capitalized: Uncle

Uncle

1. (World War II era, joint US/RAF) radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter U.

   Synonyms:

   Uniform