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.

   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.

   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.

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.

   • 1940 November, “Notes and News: Railway Operation Ad Lib”, in Railway Magazine, pages 611–612:

     Just the suggestion that a good blueberry patch was near would bring everything to a standstill.

6. A local region of professional responsibility.
   • 2012, Bruce Grundy, Martin Hirst, Janine Little, So You Want To Be A Journalist?: Unplugged, →ISBN, page 44:

     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.

   • 1980, Noel Parry, Michael Rustin, Carole Satyamurti, Social Work, Welfare & the State, page 101:

     […] 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.

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.
   • 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, scene v:

     Your black patches you wear variously.

   • 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:

     ...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.

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.

   Many people use a nicotine patch to wean themselves off of nicotine.

10. (medicine) 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.
13. (computing) A piece of executable code intended to replace part of a computer program in order to correct an error.
    • 2019 October, Roger Ford, “Power failure highlights specification confusion”, in Modern Railways, page 28:

      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 Siemens software engineers at Erlangen in Germany.

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.

    soundboard patch

17. (music) A sound setting for a musical synthesizer (originally selected by means of a patch cable).
    • 1988 November 28, “MIDI: Computers and Music”, in U-M Computing News, volume 3, number 21, The University of Michigan Computing Center, page 11:

      A synthesizer comes with controls to store patches and edit them. Some high-end synthesizers even have floppy disks for additional patch storage.

18. (printing, historical) An overlay used to obtain a stronger impression.
19. 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.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     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.

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

   The truce between the two countries has been patched up.

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.

   I'll need to patch the preamp output to the mixer.

See also

• diff
• diff file

References

Noun

patch (plural patches)

1. (archaic) A paltry fellow; a rogue; a ninny; a fool.
   • 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] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:

     Shylock:
     The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder,
     Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day
     More than the wild-cat; […]

   • 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 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Caliban: What a pied ninny's this! Thou scurvy patch! […]

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Usage notes

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

Related terms

• kuddan