PATERNAL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Paternal

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/pətˈərnəl/ Listen

adjective

Paternal adj.

Of or pertaining to a father; fatherly; showing the disposition of a father; guiding or instructing as a father; as, paternal care. "Under paternal rule."

Received or derived from a father; hereditary; as, a paternal estate. "Their small paternal field of corn."

Paternal government (Polit. Science), the assumption by the governing power of a quasi-fatherly relation to the people, involving strict and intimate supervision of their business and social concerns, upon the theory that they are incapable of managing their own affairs.

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Etymology of 'Paternal'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Paternal" Quotes from Famous Books

... mighty sorry in some respects ... However, justice goes its way. Murder will out. Criminals come to a fearful end! The eternal Judge doesn't forget. And—you [To RAUCHHAUPT.] might as well go home. Go home and wait to see how things turn out. I'll let things go this time. Your paternal feeling robbed you of ...

— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann

... my dear," replied Balls, with a paternal smile. "I did not for a moment mean that Mr Samuel Twitter was low in an offensive sense, but in a social sense. Sir Richard, you know, belongs to the hupper ten, an' he 'as not been used to associate with people ...

— Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished - A Tale of City Arab Life and Adventure • R.M. Ballantyne

... nation of yourselves, and your attachment to England, is of course subordinate to that of your own country; you view it as the place that was in days of yore the home of your forefathers; we regard it as the paternal estate, continuing to call it 'Home' as you have just now observed. We owe it a debt of gratitude that not only cannot be repaid, but is too great for expression. Their armies protect us within, and ...

— The Attache - or, Sam Slick in England, Complete • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... astonished everybody by leaving them six thousand pounds apiece in his will, which had been made afresh a year before his death. He had just then inherited the large fortune of his younger brother, who had succeeded to the paternal business in Cheapside, lived and died a bachelor, and saved a great deal of money every year. By his previous will they would have had a hundred a year each from the estate, and the use of the dower-house. But even that would have seemed wealth to these simple ladies as long as ...

— The Squire's Daughter - Being the First Book in the Chronicles of the Clintons • Archibald Marshall

... white satin ribbon adorned with gold fringe. In the morning Monsieur Grandet, following his usual custom on the days that commemorated the birth and the fete of Eugenie, went to her bedside and solemnly presented her with his paternal gift,—which for the last thirteen years had consisted regularly of a curious gold-piece. Madame Grandet gave her daughter a winter dress or a summer dress, as the case might be. These two dresses and the gold-pieces, of which ...

— Eugenie Grandet • Honore de Balzac

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