par·ent
(pâr′ənt, păr′-)n.
1.
a. A female person whose egg unites with a sperm or a male person whose sperm unites with an egg, resulting in the conception of a child or the birth of a child.
b. A female person who is pregnant with or gives birth to a child except when someone else has legal rights to the child.
c. A person who adopts a child.
d. A person who raises a child.
2. An ancestor; a progenitor.
3. An organism that produces or generates offspring.
4. A guardian; a protector.
5. A parent company.
6. A source or cause; an origin: Despair is the parent of rebellion.
v. par·ent·ed, par·ent·ing, par·ents
v.tr.
1. To act as a parent to; raise and nurture: "A genitor who does not parent the child is not its parent" (Ashley Montagu).
2. To cause to come into existence; originate.
v.intr.
To act as a parent.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin parēns, parent-, from past active participle of parere, to give birth; see perə- in Indo-European roots.]
par′ent·hood′ n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Parenthood
- A childless person is like dead —Talmud
- The honor due to parents is like the honor due to God —The Holy Bible/Exodus
- Children, grown up, now, and moved away … though they had once occupied her like a house, possessing her to the fingertips —Helen Hudson
- The ideal mother, like the ideal marriage, is a fiction —Milton R. Sapirstein
- (Maybe I’ve got this secret kid. Chances are I have, ‘cause) I probably got a sperm count like the national deficit —Jane Wagner
- Love them [daughters] as sheep are loved by the shepherd —Phyllis McGinley
- Marriage without children … like a garden without fruit —Phyllis Bottome
Compare this with the German proverb below, beginning with Wedlock.
See Also: INCOMPLETENESS
- Mother’s virtues … like a graft of a late fruit on an early apple or pear tree, do not ripen in her children until very late in the season —Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
- A mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law in one house are like two cats in a bag —Yiddish proverb
- A mother-in-law is like the dry rot; far easier to get into a house than to get out again —Punch
- Not to bear children … was like a hen that did not lay eggs or a cow that was sterile or a tree that never came into blossom. —H. E. Bates
- Raising a child is like reading a very long mystery story; you have to wait for a generation to see how it turns out —Anon
- Realised [after giving birth] the responsibility of launching the little creature labelled by name not of its own choosing, like launching a battleship, only instead of turrets and decks and guns she had to do with the miraculous tissue of flesh and brain —Vita Sackville-West
- Sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child —William Shakespeare
This is King Lear’s famous lament.
- The umbilical cord stretches like a nine-hundred-and-some-mile leash —Peter De Vries
- Wedlock without children [is like] a world without sun —German proverb
- A woman … her heart is like an empty nest, if she has not a child —Henry Van Dyke
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
| Noun | 1. |  parenthood - the state of being a parent; "to everyone's surprise, parenthood reformed the man"adulthood - the state (and responsibilities) of a person who has attained maturity |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
parenthood
noun fatherhood or motherhood, parenting, rearing, bringing up, nurturing, upbringing, child rearing, baby or child care, fathering or mothering She may not feel ready for the responsibilities of parenthood.
Quotations
"Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories" [John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester]
"Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories" [John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester]
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
Translations
أبُوَّه، والِدِيَّه
rodičovství
forældreværdighed
szülõi szerep
foreldrahlutverk
rodičovstvo
annelikbabalık
parenthood
[ˈpɛərənthʊd] N → paternidad fplanned parenthood → planificación f familiar, paternidad f responsable
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005
parenthood
[ˈpɛərənthʊd] n → parentalité fyoung people facing the new responsibility of parenthood → les jeunes face aux responsabilités de la parentalité
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
parenthood
n → Elternschaft f; the joys of parenthood → die Vater-/Mutterfreuden pl; the idea of parenthood frightened her → sie schrak zurück vor dem Gedanken, Mutter zu sein
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
parent
(ˈpeərənt) noun1. one of the two persons etc (one male and one female) who are jointly the cause of one's birth.
2. a person with the legal position of a mother or father eg by adoption.
ˈparentage (-tidʒ) noun family or ancestry. a man of unknown parentage.
parental (pəˈrentl) adjectiveparental responsibility.
ˈparenthood noun the state of being a parent.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
parenthood
n. paternidad o maternidad.
English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012
parenthood
n paternidad f, maternidad f, (el) tener hijosEnglish-Spanish/Spanish-English Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.