(a.) Open; expanded; evident; apparent; unconcealed; manifest;
public; conspicuous.
(a.) Open to public perusal; -- said of a document conferring
some right or privilege; as, letters patent. See Letters patent, under
3d Letter.
(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.
(a.) Spreading; forming a nearly right angle with the steam or
branch; as, a patent leaf.
(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.
(a.) A writing securing to an invention.
(a.) A document making a grant and conveyance of public lands.
(a.) The right or privilege conferred by such a document; hence,
figuratively, a right, privilege, or license of the nature of a patent.
(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.
