Family

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.
2. The group comprising a husband and wife and their dependent children, constituting a fundamental unit in the organization of society.
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.
4. Course of descent; genealogy; line of ancestors; lineage.
5. Honorable descent; noble or respectable stock; as, a man of family.
6. A group of kindred or closely related individuals; as, a family of languages; a family of States; the chlorine family.
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 zoölogy a family is less comprehesive than an order; in botany it is often considered the same thing as an order.
Family circle .
See under Circle.
Family man
1. A man who has a family; esp., one who has a wife and children living with him and dependent upon him.
2. A man of domestic habits.
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.
In the family way ,
pregnant.