Word.ws English Dictionary

patdown

/ˈpætˌdaʊn/

patdown noun: an act of patting somebody's clothes to check for concealed weapons, etc.

Noun

patdown (plural patdowns)

  1. (US, informal) An act of patting somebody's clothes to check for concealed weapons, etc.
    • To avoid such charges, airline screeners moved to random processes that led to patdowns of congressional representatives and mild-mannered elderly women...2006, Yoram Wind, Colin Crook, Robert E. Gunther, The power of impossible thinking
    Synonyms:
    frisk, frisking

Synonyms of patdown

Forms of patdown

pluralpatdowns
alternative formpat-down

Origin of patdown

Deverbal from pat down.

Questions about patdown

What does patdown mean?
Patdown means an act of patting somebody's clothes to check for concealed weapons, etc.
What part of speech is patdown?
Patdown is a noun.
How do you pronounce patdown?
Patdown is pronounced /ˈpætˌdaʊn/.
What is the plural of patdown?
The plural of patdown is patdowns.

Words near patdown in the dictionary

  1. patchworks
  2. patchworky
  3. patchwriting
  4. patchy
  5. patd.
  6. patdown
  7. patdowns
  8. pate
  9. pate feuilletee
  10. pateamine
  11. pated

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: patdown (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: “patdown.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/patdown. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.