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# godfather

«godfather» in Mova's school dictionary: **a man who promises at a child's baptism or christening to…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a godfather, godfathers)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (church) A godfather is a man who promises at a child's baptism or christening to help bring the child up in the Christian faith and care for them. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/godfather/#m1)

2) The founder or most important early person of something: the godfather of rock. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/godfather/#m2)

3) (informal) The boss of a criminal gang, from the film «The Godfather». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/godfather/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

Church life (baptism, christening), family (Uncle Tom is my godfather), music and history (godfather of something), crime films.

### examples

- My godfather gave me a Bible when I was baptised. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/godfather/#x1)
- Uncle Joe is my godfather and sends me birthday cards. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/godfather/#x2)
- At the christening, the godfather held the baby. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/godfather/#x3)
- He is called the godfather of punk music. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/godfather/#x4)
- In the film, the godfather ran the gang. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/godfather/#x5)
- Godparents promise to pray for the child. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/godfather/#x6)
- The Russian merchant was his godfather, and the kitchen-maid his godmother. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/godfather/#x7)

### note

Godfather and godmother together are godparents; the child is a godson or goddaughter. The gang-boss sense comes from films and is informal.

### In the corpora

- [khreshchEnyi and khreshchEna mean godfather and godmother; godparents are treated almost as family.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ukrainian-street/6-brothers-aunties-cousins-polite-vy/15/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «godfather» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/godfather/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.