Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any one of various types of wooden-soled footwear, such as a sandal, shoe, or clog, worn to increase one's height or to keep one's feet out of the mud.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An obsolete form of paten.
  • noun In building: The base of a column or pillar.
  • noun The sole for the foundation of a wall.
  • noun The sill in a timber-framing. Also written patand, patin.
  • noun A shoe with a thick wooden sole; a clog.
  • noun A stilt.
  • To go on pattens.
  • noun A skate.
  • noun A round wooden plate fastened under the foot of a horse, to prevent it from sinking in marshy and soft ground.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A clog or sole of wood, usually supported by an iron ring, worn to raise the feet from the wet or the mud.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A stilt.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of various types of footwear with thick soles, often used to elevate the foot, especially wooden clogs.
  • noun UK, dialect, obsolete A stilt.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun footwear usually with wooden soles

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English patin, from Old French, perhaps from pate, paw, hoof; see patois.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English paten, patin, pateyn, from Anglo-Norman patin, Middle French patin, from patte ("paw, hoof"), from Latin patta, of imitative origin.

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Examples

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  • Comfort pending.

    April 14, 2009