patch

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   mend by putting a patch on

   patch a hole

2. 2
   verb

   to join or unite the pieces of

   patch the skirt

3. 3
   noun

   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.

   His sleeves had patches on the elbows where different fabric had been sewn on to replace material that had worn away.

4. 4
   noun

   A small piece of anything used to repair damage or a breach; as, a patch on a kettle, a roof, etc.

   I can't afford to replace the roof, which is what it really needs. I'll have the roofer apply a patch.

5. 5
   noun

   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.

   Before you can fix a dam, you have to apply a patch to the hole so that everything can dry off.

6. 6
   noun

   A small, usually contrasting but always somehow different or distinct, part of something else (location, time, size)

   The world economy had a rough patch in the 1930s.

7. 7
   noun

   A small area, a small plot of land or piece of ground.

   scattered patches of trees or growing corn

8. 8
   noun

   A local region of professional responsibility.

   There is a lot to be said in praise of the local or regional outlet that keeps very closely across the doings and news in their patch.

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, dialectal English pleck (“plot of ground, patch”), West Frisian plak (“place, spot”), Low German Plakk, Plakke (“spot, piece, patch”), Dutch plek (“spot, place, stain, patch”), Dutch plak (“piece, slab”), S…