Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Patriarchal
Paˊtri-ar′chal
,Adj.
[Cf. F.
patriarcal
.] 1.
Of or pertaining to a patriarch or to patriarchs; possessed by, or subject to, patriarchs;
as,
patriarchal
authority or jurisdiction; a patriarchal
see; a patriarchal
church.2.
Characteristic of a patriarch; venerable.
About whose
Late the little children clung.
patriarchal
kneeLate the little children clung.
Tennyson.
3.
(Ethnol.)
Having an organization of society and government in which the head of the family exercises authority over all its generations.
Patriarchal cross
(Her.)
, a cross, the shaft of which is intersected by two transverse beams, the upper one being the smaller. See Illust. (2) of
– Cross
. Patriarchal dispensation
, the divine dispensation under which the patriarchs lived before the law given by Moses.