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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Characteristic of a patriarch; venerable. [ 1913 Webster ]

About whose patriarchal knee
Late the little children clung. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Ethnol.) Having an organization of society and government in which the head of the family exercises authority over all its generations. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]