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patch

Pronunciation: /pæt͡ʃ/

The English word “patch” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A piece of cloth, or other suitable material, sewed or otherwise fixed upon a garment to repair or strengthen it, especially upon an old garment to cover a hole.
  2. A small piece of anything used to repair damage or a breach; as, a patch on a kettle, a roof, etc.
  3. A piece of any size, used to repair something for a temporary period only, or that it is temporary because it is not meant to last long or will be removed as soon as a proper repair can be made, which will happen in the near future.
  4. A small, usually contrasting but always somehow different or distinct, part of something else (location, time, size)
  5. A small area, a small plot of land or piece of ground.
  6. A local region of professional responsibility.
  7. A small piece of black silk stuck on the face or neck to heighten beauty by contrast, worn by ladies in the 17th and 18th centuries; an imitation beauty mark.
  8. A piece of material used to cover a wound.
  9. An adhesive piece of material, impregnated with a drug, which is worn on the skin, the drug being slowly absorbed over a period of time.
  10. A cover worn over a damaged eye, an eyepatch.
  11. A block on the muzzle of a gun, to do away with the effect of dispart, in sighting.
  12. A piece of data intended to modify a computer file by replacing a part of it.
  13. A small piece of material that is manually passed through a gun barrel to clean it.
  14. A piece of greased cloth or leather used as wrapping for a rifle ball, to make it fit the bore.
  15. A cable connecting two pieces of electrical equipment.
  16. A sound setting for a musical synthesizer (originally selected by means of a patch cable).
  17. An overlay used to obtain a stronger impression.
  18. A butterfly of the genus Chlosyne.

verb

  1. To mend by sewing on a piece or pieces of cloth, leather, or the like.
  2. To mend with pieces; to repair by fastening pieces on.

Etymology

From Middle English patche, of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of earlier Middle English placche (“patch, spot, piece of cloth”), from Old English *plæċċ, *pleċċ (“a spot, mark, patch”), from Proto-West Germanic *plakkju, from Proto-Germanic *plakjō (“spot, stain”). For the loss of l compare pat from Middle English platten. Germanic cognates would then include Middle English plecke,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.