Forefather
['fɔːfɑːðə] or ['fɔr'fɑðɚ]
Definition
(noun.) the founder of a family; 'keep the faith of our forefathers'.
(noun.) person from an earlier time who contributed to the tradition shared by some group; 'our forefathers brought forth a great nation'.
Checked by Blanchard--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) One who precedes another in the line of genealogy in any degree, but usually in a remote degree; an ancestor.
Typist: Rodger
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Progenitor, ancestor, father, foregoer.
Editor: Ricky
Examples
- I will be your host in Greece, and will entertain you in my ruined abode,—misnamed a palace,—which is all that remains to me of my forefathers. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- It is the humor of many heads to extol the days of their forefathers, and declaim against the wickedness of times present. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- It was nothing to her, that an innocent man was to die for the sins of his forefathers; she saw, not him, but them. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- Various answers are made--a decline in religion, a decline from the virtues of the Roman forefathers, Greek intellectual poison, and the like. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The blood of my forefathers cries aloud in my veins, and bids me be first among my countrymen. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- They take their forefathers with enormous solemnity. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Your French forefathers don't speak so sweetly, nor so solemnly, nor so impressively as your English ancestors, Robert. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
Checker: Vernon