PATCHES | English Meaning, Definition, and Pronunciation

late Middle English: perhaps from a variant of Old French pieche, dialect variant of piece ‘piece’

a piece of cloth or other material used to mend or strengthen a torn or weak point

piece of cloth used to mend or strengthen

• the jacket was of well-worn tweed with leather patches on the elbows

a part of something marked out from the rest by a particular characteristic

part of something marked out from the rest

• his hair was combed forward to hide a growing bald patch
• the bird has a bright red patch under its wing

a small piece of ground, especially one used for gardening

small piece of ground

• they spent Sundays digging their vegetable patch

a particular period of time

period of time

• he may have been going through a bad patch

a temporary electrical or telephone connection.

temporary electrical or telephone connection

a small piece of code inserted into a program to improve its functioning or to correct a fault

piece of code inserted into program

• a program patch that fixes a bug

mend or strengthen (fabric or clothing) with a patch

mend or strengthen with patch

• her jeans were neatly patched

treat someone's injuries or repair the damage to something in an improvised way

treat or repair in improvised way

• they did their best to patch up the gaping wounds

connect by a temporary electrical, radio, or telephonic connection

connect temporarily

• patch me through to number nine

improve or correct (a routine or program) by inserting a patch

improve or correct with patch

• had he patched our system to recognize a magic password?