patent

Plural: patents

Noun

• a document granting an inventor sole rights to an invention
• an official document granting a right or privilege
• An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.
• A grant of a monopoly over the manufacture, sale, and use of goods.
• A declaration issued by a government agency that the inventor of a new invention has the sole privilege of making, selling, or using the claimed invention for a specified period.
• A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.
• A product in respect of which a patent has been obtained.
• Ellipsis of patent leather (“a varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for accessories and shoes”).
• A licence or (formal) permission to do something.
• A characteristic or quality that one possesses; in particular (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.
• The combination of seven bets on three selections, offering a return even if only one bet comes in.

Verb

Verb Forms: patented, patenting, patents

• To obtain exclusive rights for an invention.
• obtain a patent for
  • "Should I patent this invention?"
• grant rights to; grant a patent for
• make open to sight or notice
  • "His behavior has patented an embarrassing fact about him"
• To (successfully) register (a new invention) with a government agency to obtain the sole privilege of its manufacture, sale, and use for a specified period.
• To obtain (over a piece of real property) a specific grant of ownership.
• To be closely associated or identified with (something); to monopolize.

Adjective Satellite

• (of a bodily tube or passageway) open; affording free passage
  • "patent ductus arteriosus"
• clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment
  • "patent advantages"

Adj

• Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
• Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
• Of flour: fine, and consisting mostly of the inner part of the endosperm of the grain from which it is milled.
• Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
• Open, unobstructed; specifically, especially of the ductus arteriosus or foramen ovale in the heart, having not closed as would have happened in normal development.
• Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
• Of an infection: in the phase when the organism causing it can be detected by clinical tests.
• Explicit and obvious.
• Especially of a document conferring some privilege or right: open to public perusal or use.
• Appointed or conferred by letters patent.
• Of a branch, leaf, etc.: outspread; also, spreading at right angles to the axis.
• Protected by a legal patent.
• To which someone has, or seems to have, a claim or an exclusive claim; also, inventive or particularly suited for.

Examples

• a patent right    patent medicines
• He hoped to PATENT his unique Words With Friends opening move.
• letters patent
• She has a patent ductus arteriosus that will require surgery to close.
• Those claims are patent nonsense.

Synonyms

apparent, evident, letters patent, manifest, patent of invention, plain, unmistakable, arrant, bait, blatant, clear, clear as a bell, clear as day, clear cut, crystal clear, cut and dried, decided, direct, elucidate, explicit, express, eyely, glaring, intuitive, monosemic, monosemous, notable, noticeable, obvious, open-and-shut, ostensible, overt, palpable, patent, patented, plain as Dunstable highway, plain as Salisbury, plain as a haystack, plain as a pikestaff, plain as day, plain as porridge, plain as print, plain as the nose on one's face, prima facie, res ipsa loquitur, specific, straightforward, unambiguous, undissembled, undoubted, unequivocal, univocal

Anagrams of patent