PATENT LEATHER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Patent leather

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/pˈætənt lˈɛðər/ Listen

adjective

Patent adj.

1.

Open; expanded; evident; apparent; unconcealed; manifest; public; conspicuous. "He had received instructions, both patent and secret."

2.

Open to public perusal; said of a document conferring some right or privilege; as, letters patent. See Letters patent, under 3d Letter.

3.

Appropriated or protected by letters patent; secured by official authority to the exclusive possession, control, and disposal of some person or party; patented; as, a patent right; patent medicines. "Madder... in King Charles the First's time, was made a patent commodity."

4.

(Bot.) Spreading; forming a nearly right angle with the steam or branch; as, a patent leaf.

Patent leather, a varnished or lacquered leather, used for boots and shoes, and in carriage and harness work.

Patent office, a government bureau for the examination of inventions and the granting of patents.

Patent right.

(a)

The exclusive right to an invention, and the control of its manufacture.

(b)

(Law) The right, granted by the sovereign, of exclusive control of some business of manufacture, or of the sale of certain articles, or of certain offices or prerogatives.

Patent rolls, the registers, or records, of patents.

See images of 'Patent leather'

Etymology of 'Patent leather'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Patent leather" Quotes from Famous Books

... heard intoning what at first sounded to most people a church hymn. But it was not a church hymn. It was a new method of shouting out the odds, attracting attention to an exceedingly well-got-up gentleman in a grey frock suit, patent leather boots, white spats, grey gloves, tall white hat, and a flower in his buttonhole. A new bookmaker had made his appearance. He informed the crowds in song that he betted "only for cash," not "on the nod"—"I pay on the winner, immediately after the race." It only wanted ...

— The Chronicles of a Gay Gordon • Jose Maria Gordon

... almost like an up-to-date fedora. The great stick that he used to carry had somehow changed itself into the curved walking-stick of a Broadway lounger. The solid old shoes with their wide buckles were gone. In their place he wore narrow slippers of patent leather of which he seemed inordinately proud, for he had stuck his feet up ostentatiously on the seat opposite. His eyes followed ...

— Frenzied Fiction • Stephen Leacock

... strict adherence to the last month's fashions; and is it to be propagated throughout the world only by missionaries from Nugee's, and by the universal dissemination of curling-tongs and Macassar—patent leather boots and opera hats—white cambric pocket-handkerchiefs and lavender-water? Or, does it consist, as the Countess of B—— would endeavour to convince us, in abstaining from partaking twice of fish, and from eating peas with ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari. Vol. 1, July 31, 1841 • Various

... by half-insane people called "cranks," and by the professional Socialists, mainly foreigners. Both the President and Vice-President are well-dressed men. President McKinley, when I was granted an audience, wore a long-tailed black "frock coat" and vest, light trousers, and patent leather or varnished shoes, and standing collar. The Vice-President was similarly dressed, but with a "turn-down" collar. The two men are said to make a "strong team," and it is a foregone conclusion that the Vice-President will succeed President McKinley. This is already talked ...

— As A Chinaman Saw Us - Passages from his Letters to a Friend at Home • Anonymous

... closing time and every one was in a rush to get home. Engrossed in his paper, he noticed none of them until someone dropped, or rather sprawled, in the seat beside him, taking far more room than was really necessary, and making a lot of fuss pulling up his trousers and getting his patent leather feet adjusted to suit him around a very handsome sole-leather suitcase which he crowded unceremoniously over to Howard's side of ...

— Cloudy Jewel • Grace Livingston Hill

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