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
And she clattered abruptly away, and Henrietta was left to patten her road to the pump and back, and afterwards to finish her toilette in what shivering comfort she might.
From Starvecrow Farm by Weyman, Stanley J.
My feet are all right anyway with my new patten leather shoes on, but I shall have to look out for my head.
From Introduction to the Science of Sociology by Park, Robert Ezra
But the magic of that one word patten wrought an instant revolution.
From The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey—Vol. 1 With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg by Hogg, James
“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.)
Deadline and the Hollywood Reporter have since reported that Adria Arjona, Eva De Dominici, Sydney Chandler and Grace Van Patten are among the actors testing for that role in the “Superman” sequel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026
"Realistically, I'm not sure what they could have done. No-one really saw that level of escalation coming," Patten said.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2026
All European destinations had been booked by the time they got to Patten, who ended up settling for an 8am flight via Cairo the following morning.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2026
Patten and Heliovaara should have been among the top seeds for this week's tournament in Indian Wells, which is the first Masters 1000 event of the year.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2026
Barry and Patten, their “Men and Memories of San Francisco,” cited, 198, 199.
From The Life of Bret Harte With Some Account of the California Pioneers by Merwin, Henry Childs
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.
