Patch (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Patched (?);
p. pr. & vb. n.
Patching.]
1. To mend by sewing on a piece or pieces of cloth, leather, or the like; as,
to patch a coat.
2. To mend with pieces; to repair with pieces festened on; to repair clumsily; as, to patch the roof of a house.
3. To adorn, as the
face, with a
patch or patches.
Ladies who patched both sides of their faces.
Spectator. 4. To make of
pieces or patches; to repair as with patches; to arrange in a
hasty or clumsy manner; -- generally with up; as, to
patch up a truce. "If you'll patch a quarrel." Shak.
Patch (?), n. [OE.
pacche; of uncertain
origin, perh. for
placche; cf. Prov. E. platch patch, LG. plakk, plakke.]
1. A piece
of cloth, or
other suitable material, sewed or otherwise fixed upon a garment to repair or strengthen it, esp. upon an old garment to cover a hole.
Patches set upon a little breach.
Shak. 2. Hence:
A small piece of anything used to repair a breach; as, a
patch on a kettle, a roof, etc.
3. A small piece
of black silk stuck on
the face, or
neck, to hide a defect, or to
heighten beauty.
Your black patches you wear variously.
Beau. & Fl. 4. (Gun.) A piece of greased cloth or leather used as wrapping for a rifle ball, to make
it fit the bore.
5. Fig.: Anything regarded as a patch; a small piece
of ground; a
tract; a plot; as, scattered patches of
trees or growing corn.
Employed about this patch of ground.
Bunyan. 6. (Mil.) A block on the muzzle of
a gun, to do away with
the effect of dispart, in sighting.
7. A paltry fellow; a rogue; a ninny; a fool. [Obs. or Colloq.] "Thou scurvy patch." Shak.
Patch ice, ice in overlapping pieces in the sea.
-- Soft patch, a patch for covering a crack in a metallic vessel, as a steam boiler, consisting of soft material, as putty, covered and held in place
by a plate
bolted or riveted fast.
Hear it pronounced