dad

¹

[ dad ]

noun

1. a person’s father or one’s father.
2. a person who is corny or embarrassing in the way that a father figure might be:

   He was being such a dad when he told that story.

3. a term of endearment used to refer to a man or boy who is admired:

   A bunch of teens commented “HI DAD!” on the rapper’s post.

adjective

1. corny or embarrassing in the way that a father figure might be: the most dad story ever.

   a dad joke;

   the most dad story ever.

2. handsome or stylish; amazing; to be admired:

   Those shoes are totally dad.

verb (used with object)

1. to act as a father toward; act paternally toward:

   Stop dadding me about my grades!

2. to refer to (an admired man or boy) as “dad”:

   My friends dad me whenever I look good.

verb (used without object)

1. to perform the tasks or duties of a male parent; act paternally:

   He dads like a champ.

2. to refer to an admired man or boy as “dad”:

   They dad whenever a new photo pops up on their feeds.

dad

²

[ dad ]

interjection

Informal.

1. God (used in combination in mild oaths):

   dad-blamed; dad-gummed.

dad

³

[ dad ]

noun

Scot. and North England.

1. a solid blow or knock.
2. a large slice, lump, or portion.

ḍad

⁴

[ dahd ]

noun

1. the 15th letter of the Arabic alphabet.

dad

/ dæd /

noun

1. an informal word for father

Word History and Origins

Origin of dad¹

First recorded in 1530–40; probably originally baby talk dah-dah

Origin of dad²

First recorded in 1670–80; euphemism for God; Gad ¹( def )

Origin of dad³

First recorded in 1710–20; probably variant of dab ¹

Origin of dad⁴

From Arabic

Word History and Origins

Origin of dad¹

C16: childish word; compare Greek tata, Sanskrit tatas

Example Sentences

A year later, she started calling him dad.

From Los Angeles Times

It started with a memory: my aunt’s spice cake, which she used to ship in the mail to my dad.

From Salon

"I've had players coming up to me saying 'sorry to hear about your dad', 'you're doing really well' and stuff. It's nice because he was so loved and so respected."

From BBC

"A lot of the young lads here, most of their dads are in it. It runs in families a bit from where I'm from anyway it does. "

From BBC

"People were FaceTiming parents saying 'Say hi to my dad'. Vitor was doing Wolves chants with these random people's parents - it was unreal."

From BBC

Related Words

• old man
• papa
• parent