/ pætʃ; NAmE / noun , verb
■ noun
SMALL AREA
1.
a small area of sth, especially one which is different from the area around it :
a black dog with a white patch on its back
a bald patch on the top of his head
damp patches on the wall
patches of dense fog
PIECE OF MATERIAL
2.
a small piece of material that is used to cover a hole in sth or to make a weak area stronger, or as decoration :
I sewed patches on the knees of my jeans.
3.
a piece of material that you wear over an eye, usually because the eye is damaged :
He had a black patch over one eye.
—see also eyepatch
4.
( NAmE ) = badge (2)
5.
a piece of material that people can wear on their skin to help them to stop smoking :
nicotine patches
PIECE / AREA OF LAND
6.
a small piece of land, especially one used for growing vegetables or fruit :
a vegetable patch
—picture at house
7.
( BrE , informal ) an area that sb works in, knows well or comes from :
He knows every house in his patch.
She has had a lot of success in her home patch .
DIFFICULT TIME
8.
( informal , especially BrE ) a period of time of the type mentioned, usually a difficult or unhappy one :
to go through a bad / difficult / sticky patch
—see also purple patch
IN COMPUTING
9.
a small piece of code (= instructions that a computer can understand) which can be added to a computer program to improve it or to correct a fault :
Follow the instructions below to download and install the patch.
•
IDIOMS
- be not a patch on sb/sth
■ verb
[ vn ] patch sth (with sth) to cover a hole or a worn place, especially in clothes, with a piece of cloth or other material
SYN mend :
patched jeans
to patch a hole in the roof
•
PHRASAL VERBS
- patch sb/sth through (to sb/sth)
- patch sth together
- patch sth/sb up
••
WORD ORIGIN
late Middle English : perhaps from a variant of Old French pieche , dialect variant of piece piece.