- pat|tern
- pat|tern «PAT uhrn», noun, verb.–n.1. an arrangement of forms and colors; design: »
the patterns of wallpaper, rugs, cloth, and jewelry; a pattern of polka dots.
SYNONYM(S): motif.2. a model or guide for something to be made: »Mother used a paper pattern in cutting out her new dress.
SYNONYM(S): See syn. under model. (Cf. ↑model)3. a fine example; model to be followed: »Washington was a pattern of manliness.
SYNONYM(S): ideal, exemplar.5. the structure or design in a work as of literature or music: »a novelistic pattern, the regular, easily recognized pattern of a Haydn symphony.
6. any arrangement; the configuration of qualities or traits characterizing a person or group: »a speech pattern, cultural patterns, patterns of thought. Ways of behaving abstracted directly from observation of behavior in a given society are called patterns (Beals and Hoijer).
7. a) a typical specimen; sample. b) something formed after a prototype; copy; likeness.8. a model in wood or metal from which a mold is made for casting.9. the distribution of shot or shrapnel over or on a target from a shell, bomb, or the like.10. Irish. the festival of a patron saint or the festivities with which it is celebrated: »the occasion of a fair, or a pattern, or market day (Samuel Lover).
–v.t.1. to make according to a pattern: »She patterned herself after her mother.
2. to work or decorate with a pattern: »The German anti-aircraft guns…begin to pattern the sky about them with little balls of black smoke (H. G. Wells).
3. Archaic. to match, parallel, or equal.4. a) Rare. to imitate; copy. b) Obsolete. to be a pattern for; prefigure or foreshadow: »Pattern'd by thy fault, foul sin may say, He learn'd to sin, and thou didst teach the way (Shakespeare).
Useful english dictionary. 2012.
