About whose patriarchal knee Late 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.
<! p. 1052 !>
Pa`tri*ar"chate (p>amac/`tr*‰r"kt), n. [Cf. F. patriarcat.] 1. The
office, dignity, or jurisdiction of a patriarch. Jer. Taylor.