god·fa·ther (gŏd'fä'THər)
n.

1. A man who sponsors a person at baptism.
2. One that has a relationship to another person or to something that is the equivalent of being a baptismal sponsor: the godfather of a new generation of nuclear physicists.
3. Slang. The leader of an organized crime family.

tr.v., -thered, -ther·ing, -thers.
To serve as or as if a godfather to.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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