pat

noun

/pæt/

Etymology

From Middle English *patten, alteration (with loss of medial l) of platten, pletten (“to pat”), from Old English plættan (“to buffet, strike, slap, smack, give a sounding blow”), from Proto-West Germanic *plattjan, from Proto-Germanic *plat- (“to strike, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *blod-, *bled- (“to strike, beat”). Cognate with Middle Dutch platten, pletten (“to strike, bruise, crush, rub”), German platzen (“to split, burst, break up”), Bavarian patzen (“to pat”), Swedish plätta, pjätta (“to pat, tap”). For loss of l, compare patch for platch; pate for plate, etc. See plat.

derived from *blod-✻
derived from *plat-✻ — “to strike, beat”
derived from *platt✻ — “a smack, slap, blow”
inherited from plætt — “a sounding blow, a smack”
inherited from pat — “a blow, stroke”

Definitions

1
The sound of a light slap or tap with a soft flat object, especially of a footstep.
- We heard a pat on the door.
2
A light tap or slap, especially with the hands.
- Give Mary a pat on the shoulder to get her attention.
3
A flattish lump of soft matter, especially butter or dung.
- It looked like a tessellated work of pats of butter.
›+ 25 more definitionsshow fewer
1. 4
  To (gently) tap the flat of one's hand on a person or thing.
  - To show affection, he decided he would pat the boy on the head.
  - He came round to each of us to pat and speak to us for the last time; his voice sounded very sad.
2. 5
  To hit lightly and repeatedly with the flat of the hand to make smooth or flat
  - I patted the cookie dough into shape.
3. 6
  To stroke or fondle (an animal). Compare pet.
  - Do you want to pat the cat?
4. To gently rain.
5. 8
  Exactly suitable, fitting, apt
  Exactly suitable, fitting, apt; timely, convenient, opportune, ready for the occasion; especially of things spoken.
  - a pat expression
  - Your scruples and arguments bring to my mind a story so pat, you may think it is coin’d, on purpose to answer you, out of my mint; but, I can assure you, I saw it in print.
6. 9
  Trite, being superficially complete, lacking originality.
  - While most AIDS activists and researchers I spoke with agreed I shouldn't offer pat safe/unsafe categories, let me share some pretty widely accepted information.
  - The pat answer is that college students should consider graduate school as a way to delay a job search until things turn around, and that more high school students should go to college to improve their prospects.
  - Space Jam: A New Legacy takes almost nothing but wrong turns, all leading to a glittering CGI trash heap of cameos, pat life lessons, and stale internet catchphrases.
7. 10
  Opportunely, in a timely or suitable way.
  - Now might I do it pat
8. 11
  Perfectly.
  - He has the routine down pat.
9. 12
  Straight, right, exactly, precisely.
  - His nose sitteth flat on the face of him as it were a dab of clay, and I can see pat up his nostrils a summer day’s journey into his head.
  - Candidates in gubernatorial campaigns must stand pat in the middle, trying to push their rivals off the center line, charging the opponent with either left or right extremism.
10. Clipping of patent.
11. 14
  Clipping of pattern.
  - Work in pat to next underarm marker, sm, place next st on holder[…]
12. Upper-class, nobby.
13. A diminutive of the female given name Patricia.
14. A diminutive of the male given name Patrick.
15. 18
  An Irish person.
  - I'll do it, sir, by the honor of the Pats, just take your two good looking selves into the garden, […]
  - The stereotypes of the Irish were more negative. Irish men, the “Pats,” were seen as “always drunk, eternally fighting, lazy, and shiftless.”
16. A surname from Khmer or Yucatec Maya.
17. Initialism of point after touchdown (“extra point”).
18. Initialism of provincial achievement test.
19. Initialism of portable appliance testing.
20. Initialism of port address translation.
21. 24
  Initialism of protocol associated type.
  - Protocols are abstract as they are, but with PATs, you’re making your protocols generic, which makes your code even more abstract and exponentially complex.
22. Initialism of personal access token.
23. Initialism of paroxysmal atrial tachycardia.
24. Initialism of priority air traffic.
25. Abbreviation of Pointe-aux-Trembles
  Abbreviation of Pointe-aux-Trembles: a municipality of Quebec, Canada.

The neighborhood

neighborfeel
neighborhit
neighborname
neighborstrike

Derived

asspat, back-pat, butter pat, cow pat, cowpat, down pat, headpat, lovepat, off pat, pat hand, pat on the back, pat slide, patter, pitter-pat, patball, bepat, pat down, pattable, unpatted, patly, patness, stand pat, on the Pat and Mick, Pat and Mick, Patty

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for pat. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA