Pat vs Appropriate - What's the difference?
pat | appropriate | Synonyms |
The sound of a light slap or tap with a soft flat object, especially of a footstep
A light tap or slap, especially with the hands
A flattish lump of soft matter, especially butter or dung.
* Charles Dickens
To (gently) tap the flat of one's hand on a person or thing.
* 1877 , (Anna Sewell), (Black Beauty) Chapter 22[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Black_Beauty/22]
To hit lightly and repeatedly with the flat of the hand to make smooth or flat
* 1900 , L. Frank Baum , The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 23
(Australia, New Zealand) To stroke or fondle (an animal).
To gently rain.
timely, suitable, apt, opportune, ready for the occasion; especially of things spoken
* 1788, Cowper, Pity for Africans , p 18
trite, being superficially complete, lacking originality
* 2010, New York Times ,
opportunely, in a timely or suitable way.
* c''. 1600 , William Shakespeare, '' III.iii
Perfectly.
patent
(knitting) pattern
* 2012 , Kari Cornell, Knitting Sweaters from around the World (page 52)
(obsolete) Set apart for a particular use or person; reserved.
Hence, belonging peculiarly; peculiar; suitable; fit; proper.
* (Beilby Porteus)
* (Edward Stillingfleet)
* (John Locke)
Suitable to the social situation or to social respect or social discreetness; socially correct; socially discreet; well-mannered; proper.
* {{quote-news, year=2011
, date=November 10
, author=Jeremy Wilson
, title= England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report
, work=Telegraph
(archaic) To make suitable; to suit.
To take to oneself in exclusion of others; to claim or use as by an exclusive right.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.}}
To set apart for, or assign to, a particular person or use, in exclusion of all others; with to'' or ''for .
* 2012 , The Washington Post, David Nakamura and Tom Hamburger,
(transitive, British, ecclesiastical, legal) To annex, as a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property.
Pat is a synonym of appropriate.
As an adjective appropriate is
(obsolete) set apart for a particular use or person; reserved.As a verb appropriate is
(archaic) to make suitable; to suit.pat
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . For loss of ''l , compare (patch) for (platch); (pate) for (plate), etc. See (l).Noun
(en noun)- It looked like a tessellated work of pats of butter.
Derived terms
* pat on the back (n.) * patter * pitter-pat: a diminutive of footfalls. "the pitter-pat of little feet running around the house."Verb
(patt)- To show affection, he decided he would pat the boy on the head.
- He came round to each of us to pat and speak to us for the last time; his voice sounded very sad.
- I patted the cookie dough into shape.
- Before they went to see Glinda, however, they were taken to a room of the Castle, where Dorothy washed her face and combed her hair, and the Lion shook the dust out of his mane, and the Scarecrow patted himself into his best shape, and the Woodman polished his tin and oiled his joints.
- Do you want to pat the cat?
Derived terms
* pat down * pat on the back (v.)Adjective
(en adjective)- a pat expression
- A story so pat , you may think it is coined.
Editorial: Jobs and the Class of 2010, May 23.
- The pat answer is that college students should consider graduate school as a way to delay a job search until things turn around, and that more high school students should go to college to improve their prospects. ''
Derived terms
* pat handAdverb
(en adverb)- Now might I do it pat
- He has the routine down pat .
Derived terms
* pat in the middleSee also
* strike * hit * feel * nameEtymology 2
Abbreviation.Noun
(en noun)- Work in pat to next underarm marker, sm, place next st on holder
Anagrams
* ----appropriate
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- The headmaster wondered what an appropriate measure would be to make the pupil behave better.
- in its strict and appropriate meaning
- appropriate acts of divine worship
- It is not at all times easy to find words appropriate to express our ideas.
- I don't think it was appropriate for the cashier to tell me out loud in front of all those people at the check-out that my hair-piece looked like it was falling out of place.
- While it is not considered appropriate for a professor to date his student, there is no such concern once the semester has ended.
citation, page= , passage=With such focus from within the footballing community this week on Remembrance Sunday, there was something appropriate about Colchester being the venue for last night’s game. Troops from the garrison town formed a guard of honour for both sets of players, who emerged for the national anthem with poppies proudly stitched into their tracksuit jackets. }}
Synonyms
* (suited for) apt, felicitous, fitting, suitableAntonyms
* (all senses) inappropriateDerived terms
* appropriatenessVerb
(appropriat)- (William Paley)
Put armed police in every school, NRA urges
- “I call on Congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation,” LaPierre said.
- (Blackstone)
