city father

noun

: a member (such as an alderman or councilman) of the governing body of a city

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web San Diego’s most famous architect in the early 1900s was swept aside in favor of Goodhue by city fathers promoting the expo. —

Dirk Sutro, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Mar. 2023 Mahlon Gore, a former mayor, set out the trees on Gore Avenue, and another city father, Sam Robinson, followed suit on Magnolia Avenue, where his imposing 1884 home survives near Livingston Street. —

Joy Wallace Dickinson, orlandosentinel.com, 11 July 2021 The city fathers tried to stem the contamination by requiring crews suspected of infection to stay on the island of Lazzaretto for 40 days. —

Bonnie Kristian, TheWeek, 27 Feb. 2020 Implicated in this was Peter Faneuil, a city father and namesake of the market, whose vast fortune was made in part from the slave trade. —

Murray Whyte, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Aug. 2019 The 19-room inn is set in a grand white Victorian mansion that was a wedding gift in 1882 from city father William Kelley to his daughter Daisy. —

Sharon Boorstin, latimes.com, 30 June 2019 Padberg is talking about the Park River, which winds its way through Hartford, largely underground since city fathers buried it and built I-84 on top of it. —

Susan Dunne, courant.com, 14 June 2019 The building, which occupies a prominent corner on LeJeune Road opposite City Hall, is the last surviving commercial structure from the original business district created by revered city father George Merrick. —

Andres Viglucci, miamiherald, 29 June 2018 In all, around $500,000 was raised for needy islanders and Coppini was summoned to Galveston to show his artwork to the city fathers. —

Craig Hlavaty, Houston Chronicle, 25 Apr. 2018 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'city father.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.