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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Patriarchal \Pa`tri*ar"chal\, a. [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.
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2. Characteristic of a patriarch; venerable.
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About whose patriarchal knee
Late the little children clung. --Tennyson.
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3. (Ethnol.) Having an organization of society and government
in which the head of the family exercises authority over
all its generations.
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{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.
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