Family

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  natural family \nat"u*ral fam"i*ly\, n. (Biol.)
     a group of living organisms classed as a {family} in a
     toxonomic classification.
     [PJC]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:



  Family \Fam"i*ly\, n.; pl. {Families}. [L. familia, fr. famulus
     servant; akin to Oscan famel servant, cf. faamat he dwells,
     Skr. dh[=a]man house, fr. dh[=a]to set, make, do: cf. F.
     famille. Cf. {Do}, v. t., {Doom}, {Fact}, {Feat}.]
     1. The collective body of persons who live in one house, and
        under one head or manager; a household, including parents,
        children, and servants, and, as the case may be, lodgers
        or boarders.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The group comprising a husband and wife and their
        dependent children, constituting a fundamental unit in the
        organization of society.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The welfare of the family underlies the welfare of
              society.                              --H. Spencer.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Those who descend from one common progenitor; a tribe,
        clan, or race; kindred; house; as, the human family; the
        family of Abraham; the father of a family.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Go ! and pretend your family is young. --Pope.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Course of descent; genealogy; line of ancestors; lineage.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. Honorable descent; noble or respectable stock; as, a man
        of family.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     6. A group of kindred or closely related individuals; as, a
        family of languages; a family of States; the chlorine
        family.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     7. (Biol.) A group of organisms, either animal or vegetable,
        related by certain points of resemblance in structure or
        development, more comprehensive than a genus, because it
        is usually based on fewer or less pronounced points of
        likeness. In Zoology a family is less comprehesive than an
        order; in botany it is often considered the same thing as
        an order.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Family circle}. See under {Circle}.
  
     {Family man}.
        (a) A man who has a family; esp., one who has a wife and
            children living with him and dependent upon him.
        (b) A man of domestic habits. "The Jews are generally,
            when married, most exemplary family men." --Mayhew.
  
     {Family of curves} or {Family of surfaces} (Geom.), a group
        of curves or surfaces derived from a single equation.
  
     {In a family way}, like one belonging to the family. "Why
        don't we ask him and his ladies to come over in a family
        way, and dine with some other plain country gentlefolks?"
        --Thackeray.
  
     {In the family way}, pregnant. [Colloq. euphemism]
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  family
       n 1: a social unit living together; "he moved his family to
            Virginia"; "It was a good Christian household"; "I
            waited until the whole house was asleep"; "the teacher
            asked how many people made up his home" [syn: {household},
             {house}, {home}, {menage}]
       2: primary social group; parents and children; "he wanted to
          have a good job before starting a family" [syn: {family
          unit}]
       3: people descended from a common ancestor; "his family has
          lived in Massachusetts since the Mayflower" [syn: {family
          line}, {folk}, {kinfolk}, {kinsfolk}, {sept}, {phratry}]
       4: a collection of things sharing a common attribute; "there
          are two classes of detergents" [syn: {class}, {category}]
       5: an association of people who share common beliefs or
          activities; "the message was addressed not just to
          employees but to every member of the company family"; "the
          church welcomed new members into its fellowship" [syn: {fellowship}]
       6: (biology) a taxonomic group containing one or more genera;
          "sharks belong to the fish family"
       7: a person having kinship with another or others; "he's kin";
          "he's family" [syn: {kin}, {kinsperson}]
       8: a loose affiliation of gangsters in charge of organized
          criminal activities [syn: {syndicate}, {crime syndicate},
          {mob}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  199 Moby Thesaurus words for "family":
     affiliation, agnate, ancestors, ancestry, animal kingdom,
     antonomasia, apparentation, ashram, binomial nomenclature,
     biosystematics, biosystematy, biotype, birth, blood,
     blood relation, blood relative, bloodline, body, branch, breed,
     brood, caste, children, clan, clannish, clansman, class,
     classification, cognate, collateral, collateral relative, colony,
     common ancestry, commonwealth, commune, community, connections,
     consanguinean, consanguinity, deme, derivation, descendants,
     descent, diphyletic, direct, direct line, distaff side,
     distant relation, division, dynasty, economic class, enate,
     endogamous group, ethnic, extended family, extraction, family tree,
     female line, filiation, flesh, flesh and blood, folk, folks,
     forebears, forefathers, fruit, genealogical, genealogy, genetic,
     genotype, genre, gens, gentile, gentilic, genus, german, get,
     glossology, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, group, hearth,
     heirs, home, homefolks, hostages to fortune, house, household,
     inheritors, issue, kids, kin, kind, kindred, kinfolk, kingdom,
     kinnery, kinsfolk, kinship group, kinsman, kinsmen, kinswoman,
     kith and kin, line, line of descent, lineage, lineal, little ones,
     male line, matriclan, menage, moiety, nation, national,
     near relation, new generation, next of kin, nomenclature,
     nuclear family, offspring, onomastics, onomatology, order,
     orismology, parentage, patriclan, pedigree, people, phratria,
     phratry, phyle, phyletic, phylogenetic, phylum, place-names,
     place-naming, plant kingdom, polyonymy, posterity, progenitors,
     progeny, race, racial, relations, relatives, rising generation,
     section, seed, sept, series, set, settlement, sib, sibling, side,
     social class, society, sons, spear kin, spear side, species,
     spindle kin, spindle side, stem, stirp, stirps, stock, strain,
     subcaste, subclass, subdivision, subfamily, subgenus, subkingdom,
     suborder, subspecies, subtribe, succession, superclass,
     superfamily, superorder, superspecies, sword side, systematics,
     taxonomy, terminology, toponymy, totem, totemic, treasures, tribal,
     tribe, tribesman, trinomialism, type, uterine kin, variety,
     younglings, youngsters
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  FAMILY, domestic relations. In a limited sense it signifies the father, 
  mother, and children. In a more extensive sense it comprehends all the 
  individuals who live under the authority of another, and includes the 
  servants of the family. It is also employed to signify all the relations who 
  descend from a common ancestor, or who spring from a common root. Louis. 
  Code, art. 3522, No. 16; 9 Ves. 323. 
       2. In the construction of wills, the word family, when applied to 
  personal property is synonymous with kindred, or relations. It may, 
  nevertheless, be confined to particular relations by the context of the 
  will, or may be enlarged by it, so that the expression may in some cases 
  mean children, or next of kin, and in others, may even include relations by 
  marriage. 1 Rop. on Leg. 115 1 Hov. Supp. 365, notes, 6 and 7; Brown v. 
  Higgs; 4 Ves. 708; 2 Ves. jr. 110; 3 East, Rep. 172 5 Ves. 156 1,7 Ves. 255 
  S. 126. Vide article Legatee. See Dig. lib. 50, t. 16, 1. 195, s. 2.