What does "patch" mean?
Patch: Hence: A small piece of anything used to repair a breach; as, a patch on a kettle, a roof, etc.
Additional senses
- 2.A small piece of black silk stuck on the face, or neck, to hide a defect, or to heighten beauty. Your black patches you wear variously. Beau. & Fl.
- 3.(Gun.) A piece of greased cloth or leather used as wrapping for a rifle ball, to make it fit the bore.
- 4.Fig.: Anything regarded as a patch; a small piece of ground; a tract; a plot; as, scattered patches of trees or growing corn. Employed about this patch of ground. Bunyan.
- 5.(Mil.) A block on the muzzle of a gun, to do away with the effect of dispart, in sighting.
- 6.A paltry fellow; a rogue; a ninny; a fool. [Obs. or Colloq.] "Thou scurvy patch." Shak. Patch ice, ice in overlapping pieces in the sea. -- Soft patch, a patch for covering a crack in a metallic vessel, as a steam boiler, consisting of soft material, as putty, covered and held in place by a plate bolted or riveted fast.
- 7.To mend by sewing on a piece or pieces of cloth, leather, or the like; as, to patch a coat.
- 8.To mend with pieces; to repair with pieces festened on; to repair clumsily; as, to patch the roof of a house.
- 9.To adorn, as the face, with a patch or patches. Ladies who patched both sides of their faces. Spectator.
- 10.To make of pieces or patches; to repair as with patches; to arrange in a hasty or clumsy manner; -- generally with up; as, to patch up a truce. "If you'll patch a quarrel." Shak.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00