patent

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   make open to sight or notice

   Their behavior patented an embarrassing fact about them.

2. 2
   verb

   obtain a patent for

   Should I patent this invention?

3. 3
   verb

   grant rights to

   grant a patent for

4. 4
   noun

   An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.

   […] Squib proved clearly by his patent that the house and office did now belong to him.

5. 5
   noun

   A declaration issued by a government agency that the inventor of a new invention has the sole privilege of making, selling, or using the claimed invention for a specified period.

   The patent situation, too, played a part in this, as often a firm sought to produce something which would achieve a given result, and yet not infringe a patent held by another; or a railway engineer would think of a device of his own that would free him of obligation to some manufacturer.

6. 6
   noun

   Ellipsis of patent leather (“a varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for accessories and shoes”).

   1923, Ernest Bramah, The Eyes of Max Carrados Louis Carlyle's voice was wonderfully suggestive in its phases of the varying aspects of the speaker himself, and at that moment it conveyed a portrait of Mr Carlyle in his very best early-morning business manner […] . In its crisp yet benign complacency Carrados could almost have sworn to resplendent patent boots, the current shade in suede gloves and a carefully selected picotee.

7. 7
   noun

   A licence or (formal) permission to do something.

   If you be ſo fond ouer her iniquity, giue her patent to offend, for if it touches not you, it comes neere no body.

8. 8
   noun

   A characteristic or quality that one possesses; in particular (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.

   So will I growe, ſo liue, ſo die my Lord, / Ere I will yield my virgin Patent, vp / Vnto his Lordſhippe, whoſe vnwiſhed yoake / My ſoule conſents not to giue ſouerainty.

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English patent (“document granting an office, property, right, title, etc.; document granting permission, licence; papal indulgence, pardon”) [and other forms], which is either: * a clipping of lettre patent, lettres patente, lettres patentes [and other forms]; or * directly from Anglo-Norman and Middle French patente (modern French patent), a clipping of Anglo-Norman lettres patentes, Middle French lettres patentes, lettre patente, and Old French patentes lettres (“document granting an office, privilege, right, etc., or making a decree”) (compare Late Latin pat…