1. the exclusive right granted by a government to an inventor to manufacture, use, or sell an invention for a certain number of years.
2. an invention or process protected by an exclusive right to manufacture, use, or sell it.
3. an official document conferring on the inventor the exclusive right to manufacture, use, or sell an invention; letters patent.
4. the instrument by which the government of the United States conveys the legal fee-simple title to public land.
5. patent leather.

6. protected by an exclusive right given to an inventor to manufacture, use, or sell an invention; patented: a patent cooling device.
7. relating to, concerned with, or dealing with the granting of exclusive rights to sell or manufacture something, especially inventions: a patent attorney;patent law.
8. (of a right, privilege, etc.) conferred by a patent.
9. holding an exclusive right to manufacture, use, or sell an invention.
10. readily open to notice or observation; evident; obvious: She turned her nose up at me in a patent breach of good manners.
11. made of patent leather: patent shoes.
12. (of a medication) sold without a prescription and usually protected by an exclusive legal right to manufacture: patent remedies;patent drugs.
13. lying open; not enclosed or shut in: a patent field.
14. (of a doorway, passage, or the like) open.
15. expanded or spreading.
16. (of a duct or passage in the body) open or unobstructed.
17. open, in various degrees, to the passage of the breath stream.

18. to take out a patent on; obtain the exclusive rights to (an invention, process, etc.) by a patent.
19. to originate and establish as one's own.
20. to heat and quench (wire) so as to prepare for cold-drawing.
21. to grant (public land) by a patent.

• a government grant to an inventor assuring him the sole right to make, use, and sell his invention for a limited period
• a document conveying such a grant
2. an invention, privilege, etc, protected by a patent
• an official document granting a right
• any right granted by such a document
4. (in the US)
• a grant by the government of title to public lands
• the instrument by which such title is granted
• the land so granted
5. a sign that one possesses a certain quality

6. open or available for inspection (esp in the phrases letters patent, patent writ)
7. obvious
8. concerning protection, appointment, etc, of or by a patent or patents
9. proprietary
10. (esp of a bodily passage or duct) being open or unobstructed
11. spreading out widely
12. (of plate glass) ground and polished on both sides

13. to obtain a patent for
14. (in the US) to grant (public land or mineral rights) by a patent
15. to heat (a metal) above a transformation temperature and cool it at a rate that allows cold working

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