patent

1. a. Open; expanded; evident; apparent; unconcealed; manifest; public; conspicuous. Source: opted

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

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. Source: opted

4. a. Spreading; forming a nearly right angle with the steam or branch; as, a patent leaf. Source: opted

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. Source: opted

6. a. A writing securing to an invention. Source: opted

7. a. A document making a grant and conveyance of public lands. Source: opted

8. a. The right or privilege conferred by such a document; hence, figuratively, a right, privilege, or license of the nature of a patent. Source: opted

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. Source: opted

10. adj. (of a bodily tube or passageway) open; affording free passage Source: wordnet

11. adj. clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment Source: wordnet

12. n. a document granting an inventor sole rights to an invention Source: wordnet

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