# pat

Pronunciation: say "PAT" /pæt/

## Verb

1. To touch or tap someone or something gently with the flat of the hand, as to comfort, show affection, or dry it.
   - Simple: To touch someone or something lightly with your open hand, to be kind, show love, or dry it.
   - _The coach would pat each player on the back as they came off the field._
   - _The guard patted his jacket pockets, looking for his missing badge._
3. To tap something lightly and repeatedly with the flat of the hand so as to make it smooth or flat.
   - Simple: To tap something softly again and again with a flat hand to make it flat or smooth.
   - _Gently pat the soil down around the roots of each seedling._
   - _He patted the ground beef into four thick rounds and set them on the grill._

## Noun

2. A light tap or slap, especially one given with the open hand.
   - Simple: A light tap or soft slap, usually with your hand.
   - _He gave the horse a reassuring pat on the neck before swinging into the saddle._
   - _With a quick pat on his arm, she slipped past him into the kitchen._
6. A flattish lump of some soft substance, especially butter or dung.
   - Simple: A soft, flat lump of something, such as butter or animal waste.
   - _The waiter set a pat of butter beside each bread plate._
   - _Flies hovered over a fresh pat of dung in the middle of the pasture._
7. Short for patent: a government grant allowing its holder to stop others from making, using or selling an invention without permission for a limited time. — Clipping of patent.
   - Simple: Short for patent: a legal right to stop others from making, using or selling an invention for a limited time.
   - _The lawsuit claims the rival charger copies the design protected by U.S. Pat. No. 9,876,543._
   - _Each bottle opener in the auction lot was stamped "Pat. Apr. 2, 1912" on its handle._
8. The sound of a light slap or tap made by something soft and flat, especially a footstep.
   - Simple: The soft sound of a light tap, often the sound of a footstep.
   - _The pat of bare feet on the tiles told her the children were awake._
   - _A faint pat against the tent wall made him wonder whether a moth had landed._

## Adverb

4. In an exact or perfect way; precisely or directly, as when something lies right in the middle of a place.
   - Simple: Exactly or perfectly, often about where something is.
10. In a timely or fitting way, just when the moment is right.
   - Simple: At just the right time, or in just the right way.

## Adjective

5. Sounding complete on the surface but trite and unoriginal, typically of an answer, explanation or lesson.
   - Simple: Seeming complete, but not fresh, as if said many times before.
   - _The senator gave a pat answer about "working across the aisle" and took the next question._
   - _Real grief rarely fits the pat explanations offered in self-help books._
9. Exactly fitting and ready for the occasion, coming at just the right moment; used especially of something said.
   - Simple: Exactly right for the moment and ready at the right time, often about something said.

## Other meanings

- (noun) Clipping of pattern: in written knitting instructions, the stitch pattern already set up, as in "work in pat."
- (verb) To rain gently and softly.
- (adjective) Upper-class, or smart and fashionable in an upper-class way.

## Origin

From Middle English *patten, a form of platten or pletten (“to pat”) that lost its l, from Old English plættan (“to buffet, strike, slap”), from Proto-Germanic *plat- and Proto-Indo-European *blod-, *bled- (“to strike, beat”). It is related to Middle Dutch platten (“to strike, crush”), German platzen (“to burst”) and Swedish plätta (“to pat, tap”); patch and pate may have lost an l in the same way.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/pat (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).