0 an older man who you treat like a father, especially by asking for his advice, help, or support
1 a man who treats you as a father would, for example by giving advice, help, or support
In the absence of an alternative father figure the biological father was the subject of these questions although not living with the child.
But then he notices that the sign shows the father figure holding his child by her right hand.
When the biological father did not live with the child, father was defined as stepfather or other man acting as a father figure.
They needed him as a father figure to provide courage and orientation where there was then spiritual chaos.
This is not simply a move to coincide with the father figure in the text.
Previous reports have linked early menarche to absence of a live-in father figure and to family conflict, as well as genetic determination of early puberty and adiposity.
As one inhabitant remarked in the 1970s, 'it has finally been realised that we have all come of age and don't need a father figure any more' (p. 180).
The particular importance of this is that most other research and theory concerned with the importance of identity of perpetrator tend to view "father" and "father figure" as synonymous.
