patch

English Online Dictionary. What means patch‎? What does patch mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pæt͡ʃ/
• Rhymes: -ætʃ

Etymology 1

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”), Swedish plagg (“garment”), Faroese plagg (“cloth, rag”).

Or, possibly a variant of Old French pieche, dialectal variant of piece (“piece”). Compare also Old Occitan petaç (“patch”).

Noun

patch (plural patches)

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. (specifically) A small area, a small plot of land or piece of ground.
6. A local region of professional responsibility.
7. (historical) 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. (medicine) A piece of material used to cover a wound.
9. (medicine) 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. (medicine) 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.
13. (computing) A patch file, a file that describes changes to be made to a computer file or files, usually changes made to a computer program that fix a programming bug.
14. (firearms) A small piece of material that is manually passed through a gun barrel to clean it.
15. (firearms) A piece of greased cloth or leather used as wrapping for a rifle ball, to make it fit the bore.
16. (often patch cable, patch cord, etc.; see also patch panel) A cable connecting two pieces of electrical equipment.

17. (music) A sound setting for a musical synthesizer (originally selected by means of a patch cable).
18. (printing, historical) An overlay used to obtain a stronger impression.
19. A butterfly of the genus Chlosyne.

Synonyms

• (piece of black silk): beauty spot
• (a small, distinct part of something larger): section, area, blotch, spot, period of time, spell, stretch
• (a small area, plot of land, or piece of ground): tract
• (computing: file describing changes): diff file

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

patch (third-person singular simple present patches, present participle patching, simple past and past participle patched)

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.
3. To make out of pieces or patches, like a quilt.
4. To join or unite the pieces of; to patch the skirt.
5. To employ a temporary, removable electronic connection, as one between two components in a communications system.
   • 2003, The Matrix Revolutions, Scene: Starting the Logos, 00:43:09 - 00:43:32

     [the control panel of hovercraft The Logos has lit up after being jumped by The Hammer]
     Sparky: She lives again.
     Crew member of The Hammer via radio: You want us to patch an uplink to reload the software, Sparky?
     Sparky: Yeah, that'd be swell. And can you clean the windshield while you're at it?

6. (generally with the particle "up") To repair or arrange in a hasty or clumsy manner

7. (computing) To make the changes a patch describes; to apply a patch to the files in question. Hence:
   1. To fix or improve a computer program without a complete upgrade.
   2. To make a quick and possibly temporary change to a program.
8. To connect two pieces of electrical equipment using a cable.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:repair

Derived terms

• patch together

Translations

See also

• diff
• diff file

References

Etymology 2

Perhaps borrowed from Italian pazzo or paggio; the form influenced by folk etymological association with patch (Etymology 1).

Noun

patch (plural patches)

1. (archaic) A paltry fellow; a rogue; a ninny; a fool.

Derived terms

• crosspatch

Translations

Further reading

• “patch”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “patch”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “patch”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• chapt, p'tcha

Czech

Etymology

Derived from English patch.

Noun

patch m inan

1. (informal) patch (file that describes changes to be made to a computer file or files)

   Synonym: záplata

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English patch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /patʃ/

Noun

patch f (plural patchs)

1. (computing) patch (piece of code used to fix a bug)

Scots

Verb

patch (third-person singular simple present patches, present participle patchin, simple past patched, past participle patched)

1. (slang) to ignore or fail to notice someone.

   Synonym: dingie

Usage notes

• Usually used in the passive voice. Often just the word in the past tense is heard as a simple interjection.

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English patche, as if a piece of cloth on the sea.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pat͡ʃ/

Noun

patch

1. (figuratively) A sand bank.

Related terms

• kuddan

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 61