patent
/ˈpætənt/
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.18 in modern English
Meaning
noun
An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A declaration issued by a government agency that the inventor of a new invention has the sole privilege of making, selling, or using the claimed invention for a specified period.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.
American usage; Countable; Uncountable
noun
Ellipsis of patent leather (“a varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for accessories and shoes”).
Uncountable
noun
A characteristic or quality that one possesses; in particular (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "[…] Squib proved clearly by his patent that the house and office did now belong to him."
- "Philip of Spain had offered a reward of 25,000 crowns, a patent of nobility, and immunity for all past crimes, to the assassinator of the Prince of Orange."
- "The patent situation, too, played a part in this, as often a firm sought to produce something which would achieve a given result, and yet not infringe a patent held by another; or a railway engineer would think of a device of his own that would free him of obligation to some manufacturer."
- "The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll."
- "Louis Carlyle's voice was wonderfully suggestive in its phases of the varying aspects of the speaker himself, and at that moment it conveyed a portrait of Mr Carlyle in his very best early-morning business manner […]. In its crisp yet benign complacency Carrados could almost have sworn to resplendent patent boots, the current shade in suede gloves and a carefully selected picotee."
- "If you be ſo fond ouer her iniquity, giue her patent to offend, for if it touches not you, it comes neere no body."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpætənt/
- British English: /ˈpeɪtənt/
Usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- American usage
- Transitive verb
- Archaic
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Law.