city father

See synonyms for city father on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. any of the officials or prominent citizens of a city.

Origin of city father

1
An Americanism dating back to 1835–45

Words Nearby city father

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use city father in a sentence

  • Osteria del Pozzo is famous for the brodetto all’anconetano, a dish so important to the coastal city of Ancona that the city fathers chose to dedicate prominent space on the local government website to it.

  • Imagine a New York city father without digestion; what a subject of scorn he would become to his constituency!

    Buffalo Land | W. E. Webb
  • "We are turning into a city-father," he once said, trying to be the first to laugh.

    Cousin Pons | Honore de Balzac

British Dictionary definitions for city father

city father

noun
  1. a person who is active or prominent in the public affairs of a city, such as an alderman

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012