browse words by letter
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
patch |
5 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: 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. 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 From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Patch \Patch\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Patched}; 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. 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. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: patch n 1: a small contrasting part of something "a bald spot"; "a leopard's spots"; "a patch of clouds"; "a fleck of red" [syn: {spot}, {speckle}, {dapple}, {fleck}, {maculation}] 2: a small area of planted ground; "a cabbage patch" [syn: {plot}, {plot of ground}] 3: a piece of cloth used as decoration or to mend or cover a hole 4: a short set of commands to correct a bug in a computer program 5: a connection intended to be used for a limited time [syn: {temporary hookup}] 6: sewing that repairs a worn or torn place in a garment [syn: {mend}] 7: a protective covering for an injured eye [syn: {eyepatch}] 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 or supply with a patch; "patch a hole" [syn: {patch up}] 4: repair by adding pieces; "She pieced the china cup" [syn: {piece}] From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [jargon]: 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 `patch(1)' 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 door}s 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. From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]: patch1. 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)
more about patch
This work is licensed under a
