any of various kinds of footwear, as a wooden shoe, a shoe with a wooden sole, a chopine, etc., to protect the feet from mud or wetness.
a separate sole attached to a shoe or boot for this purpose.
Building Trades. any stand or support, especially one of a number resting on unbroken ground as a substitute for a foundation.
1350–1400; Middle English paten < Middle French patin wooden shoe, perhaps derivative of pate paw
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Then, the Overseer provided the needed article.—Had widow Jones broken her spinning wheel or her patten ring?
From Fragments of Two Centuries Glimpses of Country Life when George III. was King by Kingston, Alfred
Her nap was also broken at intervals like the fabled slumbers of Friar Bacon, by the dropping of the other patten, and of the umbrella.
From Martin Chuzzlewit by Dickens, Charles
But the true patrin is handfuls of leaves flung down; for patrin or patten in old Roman language means the leaf of a tree.
From Romano Lavo-Lil: word book of the Romany; or, English Gypsy language by Borrow, George Henry
In reality, patten is derived from the French word patin, which has a varied meaning of the sole of a shoe or a skate.
From Two Centuries of Costume in America, Volume 1 (1620-1820) by Earle, Alice Morse
On Christmas Eve she put her little wooden patten on the hearth before the fire, and went to sleep to dream of Saint Nicholas.
From Good Stories for Holidays by Olcott, Frances Jenkins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
