<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>the exclusive right granted by a government to an inventor to manufacture, use, or sell an invention for a certain number of years</li><li>an invention or process protected by an exclusive right to manufacture, use, or sell it</li><li>an official document conferring on the inventor the exclusive right to manufacture, use, or sell an invention; letters patent</li><li>the instrument by which the government of the United States conveys the legal fee-simple title to public land</li><li>a gift</li></ul><p><strong>Adjective</strong></p><ul><li>protected by an exclusive right given to an inventor to manufacture, use, or sell an invention; patented</li><li>relating to, concerned with, or dealing with the granting of exclusive rights to sell or manufacture something, especially inventions</li><li>holding an exclusive right to manufacture, use, or sell an invention</li><li>readily open to notice or observation; evident; obvious</li><li>made of patent leather; patent shoes</li><li>(of a medication) sold without a prescription and usually protected by an exclusive legal right to manufacture</li><li>lying open; not enclosed or shut in</li><li>open, in various degrees, to the passage of the breath stream</li></ul><p><strong>Verb</strong></p><ul><li>to take out a patent on; obtain the exclusive rights to (an invention, process, etc.) by a patent</li><li>to grant (public land) by a patent</li></ul>