baba

1. (especially among people of East European ancestry) A grandmother.Examples: "My baba, Ksenia Dubinsky, tells me that my education makes her proud."; "2001, Brattleboro Remembers, edited by the Brattleboro [Vermont] Historical Society, Arcadia Publishing I walked first for my grandmother, and my mother was sorry she had missed my first steps. My Baba was so proud, my mother later told me."; "As we made eye contact, I slowly began to wonder if she was Baba. I did not know my grandmother though I'd spoken with her several times on the telephone;"

2. (especially among people of Indian or Chinese ancestry) A father.Examples: "The first time I signed my exercise I wrote "Pisistratus Caxton" in my best round-hand. "And dey call your baba a scholar!" said the Doctor, contemptuously."; ""The greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter. I've missed you so." "I've missed you too, baba.""; "Okay. Okay. Fine, baba. Let's just do it before something else goes wrong."

3. (Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism) A holy man, a spiritual leader.Examples: "While I was in Port Alberni, three babas came to Canada to raise money ..."; "But according to Ray, 'all the babas my uncle knew were genuine. None of them was exposed. They were fairly humble people, not show-offs like the Maharishi ..."; "Most babas had little contact with written culture and are not therefore named in books and treatises."HinduismSikhism

4. (British India) A baby, child.Examples: "That is to say, if I do not take care, I shall go on calling my darling 'Baba' till she is as old as her mamma, and has a dozen Babas of her own."; "For my child is dead—my baba is dead!"BritishIndia