Patches set upon a little breach. --Shak.
2. Hence: A small piece of anything used to repair a breach;
as, a patch on a kettle, a roof, etc.
3. A small piece of black silk stuck on the face, or neck, to
hide a defect, or to heighten beauty.
Your black patches you wear variously. --Beau. & Fl.
4. (Gun.) A piece of greased cloth or leather used as
wrapping for a rifle ball, to make it fit the bore.
5. Fig.: Anything regarded as a patch; a small piece of
ground; a tract; a plot; as, scattered patches of trees or
growing corn.
Employed about this patch of ground. --Bunyan.
6. (Mil.) A block on the muzzle of a gun, to do away with the
effect of dispart, in sighting.
7. A paltry fellow; a rogue; a ninny; a fool. [Obs. or
Colloq.] ``Thou scurvy patch.'' --Shak.
{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.
2. To mend with pieces; to repair with pieces festened on; to
repair clumsily; as, to patch the roof of a house.
3. To adorn, as the face, with a patch or patches.
Ladies who patched both sides of their faces.
--Spectator.
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.