a. [f. next + -AL.] That kills or has killed his brother; concerned with the slaughter of a brother or of brothers.
1804. Ld. Teignmouth, Mem. Sir W. Jones (1806), 202. Literature, which is, and ought to be, ever connected with humanity, will never, I trust, be degraded by a fratricidal war between the learned, particularly those who pursue the same studies.
1809. Campbell, Gertrude Wyom., vi.
| But wrapt in whirlwinds, and begirt with woes, | |
| Amidst the strife of fratricidal foes. |
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, II. 202.
| All gashed and gored, by fratricidal | |
| Wounds they die. |
1865. Kingsley, Herew. (1866), I. ix. 213. Such a method would give rise to intrigues, envyings, calumnies, murders, fratricidal civil wars.
