Founding Father
- noun
- /ˈfaʊndɪŋ ˈfɑːðər/
- US
- The ideas of the Founding Fathers continue to influence American politics today.
- the Founding Fathers intended
- Founding Fathers of America
- many of the Founding Fathers
That means he rules only as the Founding Fathers intended.
- That means he rules only as the Founding Fathers intended.
- To some extent I feel conflicted because our founding fathers wanted there to be gridlock.
- At the federal level, it's doing a bunch of things that fall outside of what our Founding Fathers envisioned in the Constitution.
- Hate the fact that there are Democrats condemning American history, tearing down statues of the founding fathers.
- And now all the protections that the founding fathers created to protect America from the evils of democracy, you know, they called it mob ocracy.
- It is there because the Founding Fathers were right.
- That's why the Founding Fathers won against the British monarchy.
- You know, just what the Founding Fathers had always dreamed of.
- But I do believe that the the founding fathers did have largely good intention.
- Every every Founding father, I will wager Jack Rykoff, could not disagree.
- He was sort of one of the giants of the so-called founding fathers.
Examples
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The Founding Fathers established the right to protect oneself, by force if necessary.
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You know, just what the Founding Fathers had always dreamed of.
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That means he rules only as the Founding Fathers intended.
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None of the Founding Fathers would have said that.
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We can go back to the way it was under the Founding Fathers.
Blog text (5) -
Why, since the time of our Founding Fathers, have we fought so hard for freedom?
Blog text (5) -
However, the Founding Fathers rejected their proposal.
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Authorities on the Revolutionary era say how the Founding Fathers became cultural heroes.
Academic text (2005) -
At the federal level, it's doing a bunch of things that fall outside of what our Founding Fathers envisioned in the Constitution.
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Madam Speaker, I do agree that we're all inspired by the Founding Fathers and the courage of those early settlers.
Synonyms
A person who starts an organization like a company or charity
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person who established or originated an institution' follows directly from combining 'founding' (the act of establishing) with 'father' (originator or founder). This compositional logic is cross-linguistically common (e.g., padre fundador / père fondateur) and, aside from the specific US-historical reference, is immediately predictable to a B1 learner who knows the constituents.
Etymology
The term Founding Father uses a family image: founding means 'starting' and father means a parent who creates and protects a family. So people who helped start a country are called 'Founding Fathers' because they are like the country's parents.