patch

Definitions

• 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.
• A small piece of anything used to repair damage or a breach; as, a patch on a kettle, a roof, etc.
• 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.
• A small, usually contrasting but always somehow different or distinct, part of something else (location, time, size)
• specifically A small area, a small plot of land or piece of ground.
• A local region of professional responsibility.
• (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.
• (medicine) A piece of material used to cover a wound.
• (medicine) 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.
• (medicine) A cover worn over a damaged eye, an eyepatch.
• A block on the muzzle of a gun, to do away with the effect of dispart, in sighting.
• (computing) A patch file, a file that describes changes to be made to a computer file or files, usually changes made to a computer program that fix a programming bug.
• (firearms) A small piece of material that is manually passed through a gun barrel to clean it.
• (firearms) A piece of greased cloth or leather used as wrapping for a rifle ball, to make it fit the bore.
• (often) A cable connecting two pieces of electrical equipment.
• A sound setting for a musical synthesizer (originally selected by means of a patch cable).
• (printing) An overlay used to obtain a stronger impression.