Wiktionary
n. (plural of patriarch English)
Wikipedia
The Patriarchs ( Avot or Abot, singular Ab or Aramaic: אבא Abba) of the Bible, when narrowly defined, are Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob, also named Israel, the ancestor of the Israelites. These three figures are referred to collectively as the patriarchs of Judaism, and the period in which they lived is known as the patriarchal age. They play significant roles in Hebrew scripture during and following their lifetimes. They are used as a significant marker by God in revelations and promises, and continue to play important roles in the Abrahamic faiths.
More widely, the term Patriarchs can be used to refer to the twenty male ancestor-figures between Adam and Abraham. The first ten of these are called the Antediluvian patriarchs, because they came before the Flood. Judaism and Islam hold that the patriarchs and their primary wives – Sarah (wife of Abraham), Rebekah (wife of Isaac) and Leah (one of the wives of Jacob) – (known as the Matriarchs), are entombed at Machpelah in Hebron, a site held holy by Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Only Rachel, Jacob's favorite wife, is said to be buried separately in the Tomb of Rachel, near Bethlehem, where she is believed to have died in childbirth.
Patriarchs is a solitaire card game which is played with two decks of playing cards. It is similar in reserve layout to Odd and Even but with different game play.
First, one king and one ace are removed from the deck and placed in two columns: one with all aces and the other with all kings. In between these two columns is a space for the reserve, which is composed of nine cards arranged in three rows of three cards each.
Ace and King columns are the foundations. The ace foundations are built up to Kings while the king foundations are built down to aces, all by suit. When the top cards of the ace and king foundations of the same suit are in sequence, a reversal can be done, i.e. cards can be moved one at a time from one foundation to the other, except the base aces and kings.
The nine reserve cards are available for play on the foundations (not on each other). When a card leaves the reserve, the space it leaves behind is filled with the top card of the waste pile (or the stock if there is no waste pile yet).
If play comes to a standstill in the reserve, the stock is dealt one card at a time, and if a card is unplayable, it is placed on the waste pile, the top card of which is available for building on the foundations or filling a space on the reserve. Only one redeal is allowed; to do this the unused cards in the waste pile is picked up and turned face down to be used as the new stock.
The game is won when all cards end up in the foundations.
Usage examples of "patriarchs".
Below, in smaller print, were the specifics: the 1955 pogrom in Istanbul in which 15 Greeks were killed, 200 Greek women raped, 4,348 stores looted, 59 Orthodox churches destroyed, and even the graves of the Patriarchs desecrated.
Bible for the Antediluvian patriarchs we have the first instance of a striking agreement with the traditions of various nations.
The archangels and the upper-class patriarchs wear a finer thing than that.
You would bore the patriarchs when you talked, and when they talked they would shoot over your head.
And how the good wine was honored to celebrate the goodness of life which had granted the two patriarchs the supreme grace of assembling them all at their table on such a glorious occasion!
There will be another kingdom of the Froments yonder, another huge Chantebled, of which you and my grandmother will be the ancestors, the distant patriarchs, worshipped like deities.
Both monarchy and aristocracy were, no doubt, historically developed from the authority of the patriarchs, and have unquestionably been sustained by an equally false development of the right of property, especially landed property.
There were all the marked passages, which had thrilled his soul so often,--words of patriarchs and seers, poets and sages, who from early time had spoken courage to man,--voices from the great cloud of witnesses who ever surround us in the race of life.