From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfather something on somebody phrasal verb British EnglishSAY/STATE formal to claim that someone is responsible for something when they are not A collection of Irish stories was fathered on him. → father→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
father on • He repeated the words and phrases while his father looked proudly on.• Nature makes mothers but societies have to make fathers.• Her father jumped on the croc and wrestled her out of its jaws.• Helen Saltonstall, my mother, married Amon Dempster, my father, on the first Sunday in October, 1869.• My father, on the other hand, could not be so easily summed up in a single paternal nickname.• In other words, it was the sins of the father getting visited on the son.• His father died on Thursday but his family decided not to tell him until after yesterday's race. 