Definition of Father-in-law

1. Noun. The father of your spouse.


Definition of Father-in-law

1. Noun. One's spouse's father. ¹

2. Noun. (dated) A stepfather. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Medical Definition of Father-in-law

1. The father of one's husband or wife; correlative to son-in-law and daughter-in-law. A man who marries a woman having children already, is sometimes, though erroneously, called their father-in-law. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Father-in-law

fathas
fathead
fathead minnow
fathead minnows
fatheaded
fatheadedly
fatheadedness
fatheadednesses
fatheads
father-bother merger
father-child relations
father-figure
father-in-law (current term)
father-in-laws
father-lasher
father-to-be
father complex
father figure
father figures
father in law
father lasher
father lashers
father longlegs
father of chapel
father surrogate
fatherdom
fathered

Literary usage of Father-in-law

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated Out of the by Canadian Bible Society (1891)
"2 Then Jethro, Moses' father In law, took Zipporah, Moses* wife, after he hod sent her back, d the LORD said unto Moses, Go fore the people, and take with ..."

2. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register by Henry Fritz-Gilbert Waters (1847)
"A father is father-in-law to the person whom his child marries; ... The father and mother of a child marries, is step-father-in-law to the person whom such ..."

3. South Eastern Reporter by West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, West Publishing Company, South Carolina Supreme Court (1921)
"Upon learning of the death of his father-in-law, the defendant went to the hospital and demanded the return of the check, ..."

4. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography by James Terry White, James T. White & Company (1898)
"John P. Kellogg, is associated with his father in law practice; and the third, Charles P. Kellogg, is secretary of the Con- ..."

5. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery: During by Great Britain Court of Chancery, Edward Thurlow Thurlow, Alexander Wedderburn Rosslyn, Jonathan Cogswell Perkins (1844)
"COOKE for the Plaintiff moved, that service of the Subpoena upon the father-in-law of an infant might be good service. The Lord CHANCELLOR having some doubt ..."

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