patchery
patchery noun: hypocrisy; trickery.
Noun (1)
patchery (uncountable)
- Hypocrisy; trickery.
- Thersites: Here is ſuch patchery, ſuch juggling and ſuch knavery!c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Timon: I, and you heare him cogge, ſee him diſſemble / Know his groſſe patchery, loue him, feede him / Keepe in your boſome: yet ramain aſſur’d / That he’s a made-up villaine.c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- That which is thrown or sown together usually clumsily or with different color and textures, like patchwork.
- [The Clergy] find all that is absolutely requisite, provided in some way or other; they succeed in feeding, clothing, and educating their children, and live in sufficient comfort not to feel the ridicule which belong to dilapidation and patchery.1856, Henry Mason Baum, “The Ministry a Pleasant Work”, in The Church Review., page 532
- The Chinese mourn in white, and some of us in Harlequin-like patchery, as though believing motley to be the only wear.1863, “Naples and Lake Avernus”, The Eagle., volume 3, W. Metcalfe (Cambridge), page 285
Noun (2)
patchery (plural patcheries)
- Living quarters for married soldiers.
Examples of patchery in a sentence
- Margaret’s, Westminster, before the House of Commons in 1643, spoke of the “wretched Apocrypha” as “a patchery of human invention,” divorcing the end of the law from the beginning of the Gospel.1888, Samuel Cox, William Robertson Nicoll, and James Moffatt (editors), “The Books of the Apocrypha”, The Expositor, Hodder and Stoughton...
- It sounds prettily; and is, in parts, very carefully and mystically wrapped up in the gaudy envelope of poetical patchery.1978, Derek Roper, Reviewing Before the Edinburgh 1788-1802, University of Delaware Press, page 281
- Among the patchery was a large piece of tapestry1998, Gioia Timpanelli, “Rusina, Not Quite in Love”, Sometimes the Soul, Two Novellas of Sicily, W. W. Norton & Company (Sicily), page 131
Forms of patchery
| plural | patcheries |
|---|---|
| alternative form | parcherry |
| alternative form | patcheree |
| alternative form | patcherry |
Origin of patchery
From patch + -ery.
Questions about patchery
- What does patchery mean?
- Patchery means hypocrisy; trickery.
- How do you use patchery in a sentence?
- Margaret’s, Westminster, before the House of Commons in 1643, spoke of the “wretched Apocrypha” as “a patchery of human invention,” divorcing the end of the law from the beginning of the Gospel.
- What part of speech is patchery?
- Patchery is a noun.
- What is the plural of patchery?
- The plural of patchery is patcheries.
Words near patchery in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: patchery (page history and authors). 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.
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Cite this entry: “patchery.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/patchery. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.