patch

Meaning

Noun

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.
2. A small piece of anything used to repair damage or a breach; as, a patch on a kettle, a roof, etc.
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.
4. A small, usually contrasting but always somehow different or distinct, part of something else (location, time, size)
5. (specifically) A small area, a small plot of land or piece of ground.
6. A local region of professional responsibility.
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.
8. A piece of material used to cover a wound.
9. 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.
10. A cover worn over a damaged eye, an eyepatch.
11. A block on the muzzle of a gun, to do away with the effect of dispart, in sighting.
12. A piece of data intended to modify a computer file by replacing a part of it.
13. A small piece of material that is manually passed through a gun barrel to clean it.
14. A piece of greased cloth or leather used as wrapping for a rifle ball, to make it fit the bore.
15. (usually) A cable connecting two pieces of electrical equipment.
16. A sound setting for a musical synthesizer (originally selected by means of a patch cable).
17. (historical) An overlay used to obtain a stronger impression.
18. A butterfly of the genus Chlosyne.

Verb

1. To mend by sewing on a piece or pieces of cloth, leather, or the like.
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.
6. To repair or arrange in a hasty or clumsy manner
7. To make the changes a patch describes; to apply a patch to the files in question. Hence:
8. To make the changes a patch describes; to apply a patch to the files in question. Hence:
9. To connect two pieces of electrical equipment using a cable.

Synonyms

mend

repair

piece

patch up

fix

rag

shred

cobble

spot

bed

🛏️

darn

sew

speckle

scrap

plot

bandage

vamp

splash

cover

fleck

eyepatch

temporary hookup

plot of ground

age

board

streak

splotch

stripe

while

dapple

shelf

revamp

plank

plot of land

restore

maculation

mottle

cluster

epoch

field

clout

cloth

part

spell

close

chair

🪑

calk

bunch

beat

alteration

Translations

rapiécer

parche

Flicken

rattoppare

pezza

toppa

remendo

remiendo

bancal

bed

🛏️

flicken

bancal

lap

oplappen

Pronounced as (IPA)

/pæt͡ʃ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: pacche

Cognate with Middle English: placche

Inherited from Old English: *plæċċ

Cognate with Middle English: plecke

Cognate with English: pleck

Cognate with Western Frisian: plak

Cognate with Low German: Plakk

Cognate with Dutch: plek

Cognate with Dutch: plak

Cognate with Swedish: plagg

Cognate with Faroese: plagg

Cognate with Old Provençal: petaç

In summary

From Middle English patche, of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of earlier Middle English placche (“patch, spot, piece of cloth”), from Old English *plæċċ, *pleċċ (“a spot, mark, patch”), from Proto-West Germanic *plakkju, from Proto-Germanic *plakjō (“spot, stain”). For the loss of l compare pat from Middle English platten. Germanic cognates would then include Middle English plecke, dialectal English pleck (“plot of ground, patch”), West Frisian plak (“place, spot”), Low German Plakk, Plakke (“spot, piece, patch”), Dutch plek (“spot, place, stain, patch”), Dutch plak (“piece, slab”), Swedish plagg (“garment”), Faroese plagg (“cloth, rag”).
Or, possibly a variant of Old French pieche, dialectal variant of piece (“piece”). Compare also Old Occitan petaç (“patch”).