Patch n.
 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.”
 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.