(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) The group comprising a husband and wife and their
dependent children, constituting a fundamental unit in the organization
of society.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) Course of descent; genealogy; line of ancestors;
lineage.
(v. t.) Honorable descent; noble or respectable stock; as, a man
of family.
(v. t.) A group of kindred or closely related individuals; as, a
family of languages; a family of States; the chlorine family.
(v. t.) 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.
