any thing, place, country, &c. situated by the side of another.

in genealogy, those relations which proceed from the same stock, but not in the same line of ascendants or descendents, but being, as it were, aside of each other. Thus, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, and cousins, are collaterals, or in the same collateral line; those in a higher degree, and nearer the common root, represent a kind of paternity with regard to those more remote. See CONSANGUINITY.

COLLATERAL Succession. When a defunct, for want of heirs descended of himself, is succeeded in his estate by a brother or sister, or their descendents, the estate is said to have gone to collateral heirs.