Patent

/ˈpeɪtənt/ · noun

Meaning

An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent..

Definitions by Sense

1. An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.
2. A grant of a monopoly over the manufacture, sale, and use of goods.
3. 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.
4. A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.
5. (by extension) A product in respect of which a patent (sense 1.2.2) has been obtained.
6. (uncountable) Ellipsis of patent leather (“a varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for accessories and shoes”).
7. A licence or (formal) permission to do something.
8. A characteristic or quality that one possesses; in particular (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.

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.

So will I growe, ſo liue, ſo die my Lord, / Ere I will yield my virgin Patent, vp / Vnto his Lordſhippe, whoſe vnwiſhed yoake / My ſoule conſents not to giue ſouerainty.

To his great credit, Manson refused to patent his invention, as he desired to remove any obstacle to its adoption by other companies.

Synonyms for patent

Antonyms for patent

Related Words

Word Forms

• patents
• patenting
• patented
• more patent
• most patent

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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