Definition of "patronal"

Lest the name thereof being discovered unto their enemies, their penates and patronal god might be called forth by charms and incantations.

1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […]

Nor has the state lost its patronal role, with ministries of culture and publicly funded arts bodies sustaining the cultural economy.

2013, Michael Bhaskar, The Content Machine

Aristocratic involvement in the development of towns and cities in nineteenth-entury Britain has long been recognised, but much less attention has been paid to the character of the patronal relationships which existed between aristocratic urban landlords and their tenantry.

1988, Dietrich Denecke, Gareth Shaw, Alan R H Baker, Urban Historical Geography: Recent Progress in Britain and Germany

Manumission loyalty also offers us insights into how ancient conversion might look in a context of patronage and benefaction, for slaves did not change patrons when they attained their freedom, but rather underwent a considerable change within the patronal relationship.

2012, Zeba A. Crook, Reconceptualising Conversion

In considering how the preceding analysis relates to the rest of the world, one can think of the post-Soviet countries as providing something like a pristine context in which to study the fundamental characteristics of patronal politics.

2015, Henry E. Hale, Patronal Politics, page 455