Word.ws English Dictionary

patting on the back

patting on the back is the present participle of pat on the back.

Meaning of pat on the back

Verb

pat on the back (third-person singular simple present pats on the back, present participle patting on the back, simple past and past participle patted on the back)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To praise or congratulate.
    • Don't pat yourself on the back so vigorously; you might hurt yourself.

See all 2 meanings of pat on the back

Questions about patting on the back

What is patting on the back the present participle of?
Patting on the back is the present participle of pat on the back.

Words near patting on the back in the dictionary

  1. pattimar
  2. pattimars
  3. pattin'
  4. patting
  5. patting down
  6. patting on the back
  7. pattings
  8. Pattinson
  9. Pattinson process
  10. Pattinson's process
  11. Pattinson's white

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: patting on the back (page history and authors); pat on the back (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: “patting on the back.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/patting_on_the_back. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.