📖 P — The English dictionary · page 12

pat — Everyday, meaning 1: To pat means to touch someone or something gently and quickly with your flat hand, several times.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A pat is a light, gentle touch with your hand.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A pat of butter is a small flat piece.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: To have something off pat means to know it perfectly by heart.↗ Example: Can I pat your dog?↗ · Ask the owner before you pat a dog.↗ · Pat your skin dry with a towel.↗ · The teacher gave me a pat on the back.↗ · She patted the dough into a circle.↗ · He had the poem off pat.↗ · A pat of butter melted on the toast.↗ · And then his grandmother patted his head and told him other stories.↗

patch — Everyday, meaning 1: A patch is a small piece of material sewn or stuck over a hole or a worn place, like on the knee of jeans.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A patch is a small area that looks different from what is around it, like a wet patch or a patch of ice.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A patch is a small piece of land for growing things, like a vegetable patch.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: An eye patch is a cover worn over one eye.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: A patch is a sticky piece put on the skin that slowly gives medicine.↗ Everyday, meaning 6: To patch means to mend with a patch, or to make a quick repair.↗ Everyday, meaning 7: To patch things up means to make friends again after an argument.↗ Example: Mum sewed a patch on the knee of my trousers.↗ · Be careful of the icy patch on the path.↗ · We grow carrots in our vegetable patch.↗ · The pirate wore an eye patch.↗ · We went to the pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin.↗ · The dog has a white patch over one eye.↗ · Dad patched the hole in my bike tyre.↗ · After the argument they patched things up.↗ · The computer needs a security patch.↗ · ‘Here are some shoes for you to patch.’↗ · they also did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine skins, worn and rent and patched up; (Prophets JOS.9.4, JPS 1917)↗

patchwork — Everyday, meaning 1: Patchwork is sewing in which many small pieces of different cloth are stitched together to make a quilt, cushion or bag.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A patchwork of things is a mixture of many different parts, like fields of different colours seen from above.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: As an adjective it means made of patches or of mixed parts.↗ Example: Gran made a patchwork quilt from old shirts.↗ · From the plane, the fields looked like a patchwork.↗ · Our class made a patchwork from felt squares.↗ · The patchwork cushion had red and blue triangles.↗ · The town is a patchwork of old and new houses.↗ · We used hexagons to plan a patchwork pattern.↗ · The rules were a patchwork that nobody understood.↗

patchy — Everyday, meaning 1: Patchy means appearing in some places but not others, in uneven patches, like patchy fog or patchy grass.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Patchy means not complete or not good everywhere — some parts good, some poor, as in patchy knowledge.↗ Example: There will be patchy rain this afternoon.↗ · The phone signal is patchy in the countryside.↗ · The lawn was patchy after the dry summer.↗ · His knowledge of the times tables is still patchy.↗ · Patchy fog made driving slow.↗ · The paint job looked patchy, so Dad did a second coat.↗

pate — In Jewish tradition, meaning 1: The top of the head.↗ Example: His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violence shall come down upon his own pate.↗ (Writings PSA.7.17, JPS 1917)↗

patent — Everyday, meaning 1: Patent means obvious or easy to see, and also describes shiny leather with a glossy coating (patent leather).↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A patent is an official right that stops others from copying and selling an invention.↗ Example: Her new shoes were of patent leather.↗ · The inventor got a patent for his new machine.↗ · The glue was patent, so no other shop could sell it.↗

patented — Everyday, meaning 1: Got a patent: an official right that says only the inventor may make or sell an invention for a number of years.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (adjective) Protected by a patent.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (informal, joking) Special and typical of one person.↗ e.g. Dad's patented pancake flip.↗ Example: The inventor patented his new kind of light bulb.↗ · This patented zip never gets stuck.↗ · She patented her idea before showing it to any company.↗ · You cannot copy a patented machine without permission.↗ · Here comes Grandma's patented chocolate cake!↗ · The design was patented, so other firms had to pay to use it.↗

paternal — Everyday, meaning 1: Like a father or to do with being a father: caring and protective.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Related through your father.↗ e.g. "my paternal grandmother" is your father's mother.↗ Example: My paternal grandparents live in Scotland.↗ · Male seahorses show amazing paternal care.↗ · The old captain had a paternal feeling for his young crew.↗ · Paternal leave lets dads stay at home with a new baby.↗ · My paternal aunt is my dad's sister.↗ · Emperor penguin fathers are very paternal; they keep the egg warm.↗ · As the father of men, he takes a paternal interest in the actions and well-being of mortals.↗

paternally — Everyday, meaning 1: In a fatherly way: kind, caring or protective, like a father.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: On the father's side of a family.↗ Example: Badger spoke paternally to the young animals.↗ · He smiled paternally at the children.↗ · She is related to them paternally.↗ · The coach put his arm paternally round the boy.↗ · The old Rat looked paternally at the Mole.↗ · Paternally, her family came from Ireland.↗

paternity — Everyday, meaning 1: (formal, law) Being the father of a child.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (adult life) «Paternity leave» is time off work that a father gets when his baby is born.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (formal) Where an idea or work came from; who started it.↗ Example: Dad took two weeks of paternity leave when my sister was born.↗ · A paternity test can show who a baby's father is.↗ · His workplace gives good paternity pay.↗ · The court looked at the question of paternity.↗ · Mum had maternity leave and Dad had paternity leave.↗ · In the story, the boy's paternity was a mystery.↗

paternoster — Everyday, meaning 1: (church) The Paternoster is the Lord's Prayer, the prayer Jesus taught, named from its first words in Latin, «Pater noster», meaning «Our Father».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (church) A paternoster can also be one bead in a rosary, or a whole string of prayer beads.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (UK) A paternoster lift is an old kind of lift made of open cabins that keep moving slowly in a loop.↗ Example: The monks said the Paternoster every morning.↗ · «Paternoster» is Latin for «Our Father».↗ · Christians believe Jesus taught this prayer to his disciples.↗ · She moved a bead of her paternoster with each prayer.↗ · Paternoster Square is next to St Paul's Cathedral.↗ · The old office had a paternoster lift that never stopped.↗ · You must step quickly into a paternoster lift.↗ · "For the next seven years you must not wash yourself, nor comb your hair or beard, neither must you cut your nails nor say one paternoster.↗

path — Everyday, meaning 1: A path is a narrow way to walk on, through a park, garden or woods.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A path is the line or route along which something moves: the path of a ball, the path of a storm.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A path can be a way of living or a plan for the future: «a career path».↗ Example: The path is 300 meters long.↗ · He walked along the path 3 times.↗ · A path goes around the garden.↗ · How long is the path from the house to the gate?↗ · Stay on the path when you walk in the woods.↗ · The ball followed a curved path through the air.↗ · The storm's path crossed the town.↗ · A narrow path led down to the beach.↗ · Ride your bike on the bike path, not the road.↗ · The path led to a beautiful house.↗ · Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a horned snake in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider falleth backward.↗ (Torah GEN.49.17, JPS 1917)↗ · The Twenty-third Path is the Stable Intelligence, (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893)↗ · 'The Path," 144, Madison Avenue, New York, U.S.A- (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893)↗ · Show me Thy ways, O LORD; teach me Thy paths.↗ (Writings PSA.25.4, JPS 1917)↗ · Who are crooked in their ways, and perverse in their paths; (Writings PRO.2.15, JPS 1917)↗ · He putteth my feet in the stocks, He marketh all my paths.'↗ (Writings JOB.33.11, JPS 1917)↗

pathetic — Everyday, meaning 1: (informal, rude) Very weak, useless or poor; not good enough: «That was a pathetic excuse.».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Making you feel pity and sadness: a pathetic little kitten in the rain.↗ Example: That's a pathetic excuse for not doing your homework.↗ · Our team was pathetic today; we lost ten-nil.↗ · Stop being pathetic and help me.↗ · The lost puppy gave a pathetic whimper.↗ · The tiny bird looked pathetic in the snow.↗ · Calling someone pathetic is unkind.↗

pathogen — Everyday, meaning 1: A tiny living thing, such as a bacterium, virus or fungus, that can cause disease.↗ Example: A pathogen is a germ that makes you ill.↗ · Viruses and bacteria can be pathogens.↗ · Washing your hands removes many pathogens.↗ · Cooking chicken properly kills the pathogens in it.↗ · White blood cells fight pathogens in the body.↗ · Not all bacteria are pathogens; some help us digest food.↗

pathway — Everyday, meaning 1: A path or track that people walk along, often through a garden, park or field.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A way or route to reach a goal, such as a career or a level at school.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (science) A route that something follows, like nerve pathways in the brain or the pathway food takes through the body.↗ Example: A stone pathway led to the front door.↗ · Stay on the pathway near the cliff edge.↗ · The pathway around the lake is 3 km long.↗ · Education is a pathway to a good job.↗ · Food takes a long pathway through the body.↗ · We cleared the snow off the pathway.↗ · The pathway was lit by little lamps.↗ · How many different pathways go from A to B on the grid?↗ · You will remember there was no road—not even a pathway—between the castle of the Wicked Witch and the Emerald City.↗ · In the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death.↗ (Writings PRO.12.28, JPS 1917)↗

patience — Everyday, meaning 1: Being able to wait calmly, or to keep trying, without getting angry or upset.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (UK) A card game for one person (called solitaire in the US).↗ Example: Learning to play the violin takes patience.↗ · Thank you for your patience while we wait.↗ · The teacher never loses patience with us.↗ · Fishing needs a lot of patience.↗ · Grandma likes playing patience with cards.↗ · My little brother tested my patience all day.↗ · Patience is a virtue.↗ · Have patience, and you will see.↗

patient — Everyday, meaning 1: Able to wait calmly without getting cross or upset.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Able to keep trying or keep explaining without giving up.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: As a noun, a person who is being looked after by a doctor, nurse or dentist.↗ Example: Please be patient and wait your turn.↗ · My grandad is very patient when he teaches me chess.↗ · The dentist had three patients before lunch.↗ · A patient fisherman can sit for hours.↗ · She was patient with her little brother.↗ · The nurse took the patient's temperature.↗ · Plants grow slowly, so a gardener must be patient.↗ · "Be patient, and we shall see.↗ · What is my strength, that I should wait? and what is mine end, that I should be patient?↗ (Writings JOB.6.11, JPS 1917)↗ · Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof; and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.↗ (Writings ECC.7.8, JPS 1917)↗

patiently — Everyday, meaning 1: Patiently means in a calm way, waiting or working without getting cross, bored or upset.↗ Example: We waited patiently for our turn.↗ · The teacher patiently explained the sum again.↗ · The cat sat patiently by the mouse hole.↗ · Please wait patiently in line.↗ · She patiently untangled the necklace.↗ · He listened patiently to his little brother's story.↗ · The fisherman waited patiently for a bite.↗ · The hare, meanwhile, waited patiently on the shore.↗ · I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.↗ (Writings PSA.40.2, JPS 1917)↗ · Resign thyself unto the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.↗ (Writings PSA.37.7, JPS 1917)↗

patina — Everyday, meaning 1: A patina is a thin green or brown layer that forms on copper, bronze and some other metals over time, like on the Statue of Liberty.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A patina is the soft shine or worn look that old wood, leather or stone gets from age and use.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (figurative) A patina is a thin outer look: «a patina of calm».↗ Example: The Statue of Liberty is green because of its copper patina.↗ · The old church roof has a green patina.↗ · The wooden handrail had a shiny patina from many hands.↗ · The bronze statue developed a patina over the years.↗ · Polishing would remove the coin's patina.↗ · Beneath a patina of calm, she was very nervous.↗