[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

patch \patch\ pa^ch, v. t. imp.  p. p. patched
   pa^cht; 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.
      1913 webster

   2. to mend with pieces; to repair with pieces festened on; to
      repair clumsily; as, to patch the roof of a house.
      1913 webster

   3. to adorn, as the face, with a patch or patches.
      1913 webster

            ladies who patched both sides of their faces.
                                                  --spectator.
      1913 webster

   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.
      1913 webster
see also:
patched patching 

[2] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

patch \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.
      1913 webster

            patches set upon a little breach.     --shak.
      1913 webster

   2. hence: a small piece of anything used to repair a breach;
      as, a patch on a kettle, a roof, etc.
      1913 webster

   3. a small piece of black silk stuck on the face, or neck, to
      hide a defect, or to heighten beauty.
      1913 webster

            your black patches you wear variously. --beau.  fl.
      1913 webster

   4. gun. a piece of greased cloth or leather used as
      wrapping for a rifle ball, to make it fit the bore.
      1913 webster

   5. fig.: anything regarded as a patch; a small piece of
      ground; a tract; a plot; as, scattered patches of trees or
      growing corn.
      1913 webster

            employed about this patch of ground.  --bunyan.
      1913 webster

   6. mil. a block on the muzzle of a gun, to do away with the
      effect of dispart, in sighting.
      1913 webster

   7. a paltry fellow; a rogue; a ninny; a fool. obs. or
      colloq. "thou scurvy patch." --shak.
      1913 webster

   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.
      1913 webster
see also:
patch ice soft patch 

[3] : WordNet (r) 2.0

patch
     n 1: a small contrasting part of something; "a bald spot"; "a
          leopard's spots"; "a patch of clouds"; "patches of thin
          ice"; "a fleck of red" syn: spot, speckle, dapple,
           fleck, maculation
     2: a small area of ground covered by specific vegetation; "a
        bean plot"; "a cabbage patch"; "a briar patch" syn: plot,
         plot of ground
     3: a piece of cloth used as decoration or to mend or cover a
        hole
     4: a period of indeterminate length usually short marked by
        some action or condition; "he was here for a little
        while"; "i need to rest for a piece"; "a spell of good
        weather"; "a patch of bad weather" syn: while, piece,
         spell
     5: a short set of commands to correct a bug in a computer
        program
     6: a connection intended to be used for a limited time syn: temporary
        hookup
     7: sewing or darning that repairs a worn or torn hole
        especially in a garment; "her stockings had several
        mends" syn: mend, darn
     8: a protective cloth covering for an injured eye syn: eyepatch
     9: a piece of soft material that covers and protects an injured
        part of the body syn: bandage
     v 1: to join or unite the pieces of; "patch the skirt" syn: piece
     2: provide with a patch; also used metaphorically; "the field
        was patched with snow"
     3: mend by putting a patch on; "patch a hole" syn: patch up
     4: repair by adding pieces; "she pieced the china cup" syn: piece
see also:
spot speckle dapple fleck maculation plot 
plot of ground while piece spell temporary hookup 
mend darn eyepatch bandage patch up 

[4] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

268 moby thesaurus words for "patch":
   hershey bar, x ray, actinic ray, actinism, area, atomic beam,
   atomic ray, aviation badge, badge, bailiwick, bar, bat out, beam,
   beam of light, birthmark, blaze, blemish, block, bloodstain, blot,
   blotch, blur, botch, brand, bring to terms, bungle,
   bury the hatchet, caste mark, check, checkmark, chevron, chicken,
   chip, cicatrix, clearing, clos, close, cobble, come to terms,
   commission, condition, corn field, cover, croft, crumb,
   cultivated land, cut, dab, dapple, dappledness, dappleness, darn,
   dash off, daub, discoloration, do anyhow, do by halves,
   do carelessly, do offhand, do up, doctor, dot, dottedness, eagle,
   earmark, enclave, engraving, epaulet, episode, experience, eyesore,
   fake up, field, fix, fix up, fleck, flick, flyspeck, forty,
   freckle, freckliness, fudge up, gamma ray, gash, gleam, graving,
   ground, hack, hash mark, hayfield, heal, improvise, infrared ray,
   insignia of branch, interval, invisible radiation, jot, jury-rig,
   knock off, knock out, knock together, knock up, kraal, lash up,
   leam, lentigo, lot, macula, maculation, macule, mark, marking,
   mend, mole, morceau, morsel, mottle, mottledness, nevus, nick, nip,
   notch, oak leaf, organization insignia, overhaul, overseas bar,
   pad, paddy, pale, parachute badge, parcel, parcel of land,
   patch together, patch up, pencil, period, photon, piece,
   piece of land, pip, plat, plot, plot of ground, point, pointillage,
   pointillism, polka dot, pound out, prick, puncture,
   put in commission, put in order, put in repair, put in shape, quad,
   quadrangle, radiation, radiorays, ray, ray of light, ready,
   real estate, rebuild, recap, reconcile, recondition, reconstruct,
   reinforce, reinforcement, repair, resolve, responsibility, retread,
   revamp, ribbon, ribbon of light, rice paddy, rough out, roughcast,
   roughhew, scar, scarification, score, scotch, scrap, scratch,
   scratching, section, segment, service, service stripe, set right,
   set straight, set to rights, settle, sew up, shiver,
   shoulder patch, shoulder sleeve insignia, shred, slap up, sliver,
   smear, smirch, smithereen, smouch, smudge, smut, smutch, snick,
   snip, snippet, solar rays, spatter, speck, speckle, speckliness,
   spell, splash, splatter, splinter, splotch, spot, spottedness,
   spottiness, spread eagle, square, stage, stain, star, stigma,
   stipple, stippledness, stippling, stitch, straighten out,
   strawberry mark, streak, stream, stream of light, streamer, stripe,
   submarine badge, tag, taint, tarnish, tatter, tattoo, tattoo mark,
   territory, throw off, throw together, tick, time, tinker,
   tinker up, tittle, toss off, toss out, toss together, tract,
   trifle with, ultraviolet ray, vamp, violet ray, watermark,
   wheat field, whomp up

[5] : Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

patch 1. n. a temporary addition to a piece of code, usually as a
   quick-and-dirty remedy to an existing bug or misfeature. a patch may
   or may not work, and may or may not eventually be incorporated
   permanently into the program. distinguished from a diff or mod by
   the fact that a patch is generated by more primitive means than the rest
   of the program; the classical examples are instructions modified by
   using the front panel switches, and changes made directly to the binary
   executable of a program originally written in an hll. compare
   one-line fix. 2. vt. to insert a patch into a piece of code. 3. in
   the unix world n. a diff sense 2. 4. a set of modifications to
   binaries to be applied by a patching program. ibm operating systems
   often receive updates to the operating system in the form of absolute
   hexadecimal patches. if you have modified your os, you have to
   disassemble these back to the source. the patches might later be
   corrected by other patches on top of them patches were said to "grow
   scar tissue". the result was often a convoluted patch space and
   headaches galore. 5. unix the `patch1' program, written by larry
   wall, which automatically applies a patch sense 3 to a set of source
   code.

   there is a classic story of a tiger team penetrating a secure
   military computer that illustrates the danger inherent in binary patches
   or, indeed, any patches that you can't -- or don't -- inspect and
   examine before installing. they couldn't find any trap doors or any
   way to penetrate security of ibm's os, so they made a site visit to an
   ibm office remember, these were official military types who were
   purportedly on official business, swiped some ibm stationery, and
   created a fake patch. the patch was actually the trapdoor they needed.
   the patch was distributed at about the right time for an ibm patch, had
   official stationery and all accompanying documentation, and was
   dutifully installed. the installation manager very shortly thereafter
   learned something about proper procedures.


see also:
quick-and-dirty diff mod hll one-line fix patch space 
tiger team trap door 

[6] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

patch
     
         1. a temporary addition to a piece of code, usually
        as a quick-and-dirty remedy to an existing bug or
        misfeature.  a patch may or may not work, and may or may not
        eventually be incorporated permanently into the program.
        distinguished from a diff or mod by the fact that a patch
        is generated by more primitive means than the rest of the
        program; the classical examples are instructions modified by
        using the front panel switches, and changes made directly to
        the binary executable of a program originally written in an
        hll.  compare one-line fix.
     
        2. to insert a patch into a piece of code.
     
        3. in the unix world a diff.
     
        4. a set of modifications to binaries to be applied by a
        patching program.  ibm systems often receive updates to the
        operating system in the form of absolute hexadecimal
        patches.  if you have modified your os, you have to
        disassemble these back to the source code.  the patches
        might later be corrected by other patches on top of them
        patches were said to "grow scar tissue".  the result was
        often a convoluted patch space and headaches galore.
     
        there is a classic story of a tiger team penetrating a
        secure military computer that illustrates the danger inherent
        in binary patches or, indeed, any patches that you can't - or
        don't - inspect and examine before installing.  they couldn't
        find any trap doors or any way to penetrate security of
        ibm's os, so they made a site visit to an ibm office
        remember, these were official military types who were
        purportedly on official business, swiped some ibm stationery,
        and created a fake patch.  the patch was actually the trapdoor
        they needed.  the patch was distributed at about the right
        time for an ibm patch, had official stationery and all
        accompanying documentation, and was dutifully installed.  the
        installation manager very shortly thereafter learned something
        about proper procedures.
     
        5. larry wall's "patch" utility, which automatically applies
        a patch to a set of source code or other text files.  it
        accepts input in any of the four forms output by the unix
        diff utility and uses many helpful heuristics to determine
        how to apply them.
     
        diff and patch are the standard way of producing and applying
        updates to unix files ditributed via usenet and the
        internet, both have been ported to other operating
        systems.
     
        see your nearest gnu archive site.
     
        jargon file
     
        1996-06-04
     
     
see also:
quick-and-dirty bug misfeature diff mod hll 
one-line fix ibm operating system hexadecimal source code 
patch space tiger team trap doors larry wall unix 
heuristics usenet internet operating systems gnu archive site 
jargon file 

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