Patch

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.