Definition of "avuncular" []

• Of or having to do with an uncle. (adjective)
• Regarded as characteristic of an uncle, especially in benevolence or tolerance. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The former justice minister is known as an avuncular and soft-spoken man who quit the cabinet in the early days of the uprising and immediately joined the rebels in Benghazi."
• "But while Norton's lavish tribute may well have had a certain avuncular motive, it's evident that the fervor and clamor of young Kipling's balladry stirred the old Brahmin to his bones."
• "The first one I can only describe as avuncular and earnest."