Word.ws English Dictionary

patch

/pæt͡ʃ/

patch 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.

Noun (1)

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.
    • His sleeves had patches on the elbows where different fabric had been sewn on to replace material that had worn away.
  2. 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.
  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.
    • Before you can fix a dam, you have to apply a patch to the hole so that everything can dry off.
    • "This patch should hold until you reach the city," the mechanic said as he patted the car's hood.
  4. 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.
    • To me, a normal cow is white with black patches, but Sarah's from Texas and most of the cows there have solid brown, black, or red coats.
  5. (specifically) A small area, a small plot of land or piece of ground.
    • scattered patches of trees or growing corn
    • There was a blackberry patch down by the creek, and his grandparents called the pasture down there the cow patch.
    Synonyms:
    tract
  6. 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.2012, Bruce Grundy, Martin Hirst, Janine Little, So You Want To Be A Journalist?: Unplugged, →ISBN, page 44
    • […] formed a contact with a man, who was the secretary of the tenants' association of a small housing estate in the social worker's patch.1980, Noel Parry, Michael Rustin, Carole Satyamurti, Social Work, Welfare & the State, page 101
  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.
    • Your black patches you wear variously.1625, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The Elder Brother. A Comedy.”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act III...
    • ...Then the patches had to be placed—patches full of sentiment, coquetry, and bits of opinions as minute as themselves. Essences and powder had to he scattered together, and Henrietta's long black tresses gathered into a mass which might fairly set all the orders of architecture at defiance.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Another London Life”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 169
    Synonyms:
    beauty spot
  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.
    • Many people use a nicotine patch to wean themselves off of nicotine.
  10. A cover worn over a damaged eye, an eyepatch.
    • He had scratched his cornea so badly that his doctor told him to wear a patch.
  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.
    • Immediately following the incident Siemens commissioned a software patch that will allow units which protectively shut down below 49Hz to recover themselves without the need of a reboot or laptop when the frequency rises to 49.5Hz. At the beginning of September, this patch was being verified by...2019 October, Roger Ford, “Power failure highlights specification confusion”, in Modern Railways, page 28
Show 6 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A small piece of material that is manually passed through a gun barrel to clean it.
  2. A piece of greased cloth or leather used as wrapping for a rifle ball, to make it fit the bore.
  3. (usually, often patch cable, patch cord, see also patch panel) A cable connecting two pieces of electrical equipment.
    • soundboard patch
  4. A sound setting for a musical synthesizer (originally selected by means of a patch cable).
    • A synthesizer comes with controls to store patches and edit them. Some high-end synthesizers even have floppy disks for additional patch storage.1988 November 28, “MIDI: Computers and Music”, in U-M Computing News, volume 3, number 21, The University of Michigan Computing Center, page 11
  5. (historical) An overlay used to obtain a stronger impression.
  6. A butterfly of the genus Chlosyne.

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.
    • My coat needs patching.
    • That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberry picker's overalls.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
  2. To mend with pieces; to repair by fastening pieces on.
  3. To make out of pieces or patches, like a quilt.
    • I patched together this 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.
    • [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?2003, The Matrix Revolutions, Scene: Starting the Logos, 00:43:09 - 00:43:32
  6. (generally with the particle "up") To repair or arrange in a hasty or clumsy manner
    • The truce between the two countries has been patched up.
  7. To fix or improve a computer program without a complete upgrade.
  8. To make a quick and possibly temporary change to a program.
  9. To connect two pieces of electrical equipment using a cable.
    • I'll need to patch the preamp output to the mixer.

Noun (2)

patch (plural patches)

  1. (archaic) A paltry fellow; a rogue; a ninny; a fool.
    • Shylock:
      The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder,
      Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day
      More than the wild-cat;[…]c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • Caliban: What a pied ninny's this! Thou scurvy patch![…]1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...

Proper noun capitalized: Patch

Patch (plural Patches or (nonstandard) Patchs)

  1. A surname.
    • By the Master's report made in the said causes, dated the 18th of June, 1849, the said Master certified that the total amount then due and owing to the Plaintiff John Patch for such arrears of the annuities and annual payments of the said Susanna Jemima Hicks amounted to the sum of 4,489l. 15s.[…]1857, Charles Stewart Drewry, Sir Richard Torin Kindersley, John Jackson Smale, Reports of Cases Decided in the High Court of Chancery, volume 3, page 368
    • Tim Patch, also known as "Pricasso" for painting up to 20 portraits a day using his penis and sometimes his buttocks, was a guest on Breakfast with O'Neil on Thursday morning. ... "Sexpo is also about a little bit of naughty fun. Miss Nude Australia, Adrianna Starr, revealed a little more than her...2008 February 9, Make friends, “Face Painting anyone? from someone who paints with his penis?”, in australia.radio.broadcast.moderated (Usenet)

patch meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

patch in Hindi

patch, speck, small area
चकत्ता cakattā

patch in Tamil

ஒட்டு, திட்டு, தோல்திட்டு, துண்டம், சீரமைப்பு, ஒட்டுப்போடு

patch in Marathi

पॅच, पॅच करण्यासाठी, पॅच करायला

patch in Urdu

patch, addition, add, joint, junction
پیوند paivand
More languagesFewer languages
patch in Bengali
তালি, তাপ্পি, একটুকরা জমি, চাপড়
patch in Telugu
ప్యాచ్, పాచ్, ప్యాచ్ చేయడానికి
patch in Malayalam
പൊത്ത്, ആവരണം, മുറിവിൻമേലൊട്ടിക്കുന്ന ഔഷധം തേച്ച തുണി, കണ്ണിനുമുകളിൽ വയ്ക്കന്ന പൊത്തിക്കെട്ട്
patch in Kannada
ತೇಪೆ, ಪಟ್ಟಿ, ಮಚ್ಚೆ, ಕಲೆ
patch in Punjabi
ਜੋੜਨਾ joṛnā
patch in Gujarati
પેચ, પૅચ, પેચો
patch in Odia
ପ୍ଯ଼ାଚ୍, ପାଚ୍, ପ୍ଯ଼ାଚ୍ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
patch in Nepali
प्याच, प्याच गर्न, प्याच गर्नाका लागि
patch in Arabic
رُقْعَة ruqʕa, مُصَحِّح sg or muṣaḥḥiḥ, رَقَّعَ raqqaʕa
patch in Malay
tampalan
patch in Indonesian
tambalan, pelekat, tampal, tompok
patch in Persian
پینه pine, وصله vasle
patch in Vietnamese
mảnh vá, miếng vá, bản vá

Examples of patch in a sentence

  • Doesn't that patch of clouds looks like a bunny?
  • When ice skating, be sure to stay away from reeds: there are always thin patches of ice there, and you could fall through.
  • Just the suggestion that a good blueberry patch was near would bring everything to a standstill.1940 November, “Notes and News: Railway Operation Ad Lib”, in Railway Magazine, pages 611–612:
  • At the beginning of September, this patch was being verified by Siemens software engineers at Erlangen in Germany.2019 October, Roger Ford, “Power failure highlights specification confusion”, in Modern Railways, page 28:

All 40 example sentences with patch

Synonyms of patch

All synonyms of patch

Forms of patch

Noun
pluralpatches
Verb
third-person singular presentpatches
present participlepatching
past participlepatched
pastpatched
Proper noun
pluralPatches
plural (nonstandard)Patchs

Past tense of patch: patched

Plural of patch: patches

Origin of patch

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”).

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

English and German surname of uncertain origin; perhaps from a nickname related to Peter.

Words formed from patch

Phrases with patch

16 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with patch

16 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about patch

What does patch mean?
Patch means 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.
What is patch in Hindi?
Patch in Hindi is चकत्ता (cakattā). See Patch meaning in Hindi.
How do you use patch in a sentence?
Doesn't that patch of clouds looks like a bunny?
What part of speech is patch?
Patch can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce patch?
Patch is pronounced /pæt͡ʃ/.
What is the plural of patch?
The plural of patch is patches.

Words near patch in the dictionary

  1. Patayan
  2. Patayans
  3. patball
  4. patballer
  5. patballers
  6. patch
  7. patch bay
  8. patch bays
  9. patch box
  10. patch boxes
  11. patch clamp

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: patch (page history and authors); Patch (page history and authors); चकत्ता (Hindi) (page history and authors); patch (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); patch (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); پیوند (Urdu) (page history and authors); patch (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); patch (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patch (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); patch (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਜੋੜਨਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); patch (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patch (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); patch (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-patch.ogg.

Cite this entry: “patch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/patch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.