'Patriarchal cross' definitions:
Definition of 'patriarchal cross'
From: WordNet
noun
A cross with two crossbars
Definition of 'Patriarchal cross'
From: 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. [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]