parent

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One who begets, gives birth to, or nurtures and raises a child; a father or mother.
2. n. An ancestor; a progenitor.
3. n. An organism that produces or generates offspring.
4. n. A guardian; a protector.
5. n. A parent company.
6. n. A source or cause; an origin: Despair is the parent of rebellion.
7. v. To act as a parent to; raise and nurture: "A genitor who does not parent the child is not its parent” ( Ashley Montagu).
8. v. To cause to come into existence; originate.
9. v. To act as a parent.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A father or mother; one who has generated or produced: correlated to child, offspring, descendant.
2. n. By extension, any animal in relation to its offspring, or a plant in relation to other plants produced from it; any organism in relation to the individual organisms which it produces by any process of reproduction.
3. n. One who or that which produces; an author; a cause; a source.
4. n. A kinsman; relative.
5. Serving as or pertaining to a parent or source.

Wiktionary

1. n. One of the two persons from whom one is immediately biologically descended; a mother or father.
2. n. A person who acts as a parent in rearing a child. (adoptive parent, foster parent)
3. n. An organism from which a plant or animal is immediately biologically descended.
4. n. The source or origin of something.
5. n. A group from which another group is formed, or which completely controls a subordinate group. (parent company)
6. n. The object from which a child or derived object is descended.
7. v. To act as parent, to raise or rear.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One who begets, or brings forth, offspring; a father or a mother.
2. n. That which produces; cause; source; author; begetter.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. bring up
2. n. a father or mother; one who begets or one who gives birth to or nurtures and raises a child; a relative who plays the role of guardian
3. n. an organism (plant or animal) from which younger ones are obtained