Thesaurus: patent

Related headwords

Definitions

1. a. Open; expanded; evident; apparent; unconcealed; manifest; public; conspicuous.
2. a. Open to public perusal; -- said of a document conferring some right or privilege; as, letters patent. See Letters patent, under 3d Letter.
3. a. 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.
4. a. Spreading; forming a nearly right angle with the steam or branch; as, a patent leaf.
5. a. A letter patent, or letters patent; an official document, issued by a sovereign power, conferring a right or privilege on some person or party.
6. a. A writing securing to an invention.
7. a. A document making a grant and conveyance of public lands.
8. a. The right or privilege conferred by such a document; hence, figuratively, a right, privilege, or license of the nature of a patent.
9. v. t. To grant by patent; to make the subject of a patent; to secure or protect by patent; as, to patent an invention; to patent public lands.
10. adj. (of a bodily tube or passageway) open; affording free passage
11. adj. clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment
12. n. a document granting an inventor sole rights to an invention