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.
Ambulant Treatment.—When the patient is able to use crutches, the affected limb is prevented from touching the ground by fixing a patten on the sole of the boot on the sound side.
From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Miles, Alexander
“Well, Evson, you’ll soon find out what Paton’s like; anything but ‘a patten of bright gold’ at any rate.”
From St. Winifred's, or The World of School by Earnshaw, H. C. (Harold C.)
There is a most ungallant old riddle, "Why is a wife like a patten?"
From Two Centuries of Costume in America, Volume 1 (1620-1820) by Earle, Alice Morse
Cf., for the sense development, Eng. patten, from Fr. patin, a derivative of patte, foot, cognate with paw.
From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Weekley, Ernest
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
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.
