Lēv'i-rate or Lēv'i-rāt'ic-al, a.

a. [Lat. levir, a husband's brother, brother-in-law, Gr. δαήρ; Fr. lévirat.] Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with, a certain Jewish law, according to which a woman, whose husband died without issue, was to be married to the husband's brother.

The first-born son of a leviratical marriage was reckoned and registered as the son of the deceased brother. Alford.