1. Someone who takes the place of another person: James could not attend the business meeting, so he sent his surrogate.
2. A person appointed to represent or to act on behalf of others: Mike was appointed as the surrogate for his brother in the youth court.
3. Anyone who provides or receives nurture, or parental care, even though when not related by blood or legal ties: Mildred's foster father was a genuine surrogate to her when she was very young.
4. A judge who probates wills and settles estates: Mr. Nelson, the surrogate, worked with the lawyers to sort out the issues of the rich man's estate.
5. In psychology, a substitute authoritative figure; or a respected person who replaces a lost or nonexistent parent in someone's subconscious; such as, a teacher or an older sibling: During counseling, Peter realized that he had thought of his grade seven teacher as a surrogate when he was worried and needed to confide his frustrations to someone other than his father or mother.
6. Etymology: from Latin surrogatus, past participle of surrogare "to put in another's place, a substitute"; from sub, "in the place of, under" + rogare "to ask, to propose".

Relating to or acting as a substitute: After the death of the teenager's biological parents in a car accident, Elizabeth considered the couple who took care of her as her surrogate family.

When Roy was in the military service, his sister and brother-in-law served as his children's surrogate parents because their mother had died of cancer.

1. A woman who bears a child for another person, often for pay, either through artificial insemination or by carrying until birth another woman's surgically implanted fertilized egg: Recently on TV, there was a woman in California who was hired to be a surrogate mother for a Chinese couple.
2. One that acts as, serves as, or is a substitute mother: When little Tom's parents were killed in an automobile accident, his aunt who was taking care of him at the time became his surrogate mother.