Our PW has supplied.
A ‘patch’ (the word comes from the same word as ‘piece’) is a small piece of cloth sewn onto some clothing to repair a tear. ‘Elbow patches’ are an important part of academic dress for the jackets of absent-minded university lecturers. The word ‘patch’ can describe any small piece - a ‘patch of grass’ for instance - but the sense of the verb refers to the use of a piece of cloth to repair something. It is generally a quite temporary repair. Computer programme updates are often referred to as patches because they are a small bit of programming patched onto the main programme. The word is also used for any sewing together of small bits of cloth - patchwork. This idea is taken up in telecommunications, where ‘to patch someone through’ is to connect two parties by telephone.
‘Rebuild’ is all about taking something apart and building it again - engines, computers, houses. I love rebuilding things, but always worry about the odd screws that are left over.
‘Repair’ and ‘mend’ really mean the same. Though, as PW says, ‘repair’ sounds more professional, whereas ‘mend’ is more homespun. However, once something has been mended it will work, but once something has been repaired it still may not work quite right. To mend something, or to fix something, is to sort it out.
‘Repair’ is quite the right word when talking about sorting out friendships and emotions. It can also be used as a noun to describe the condition of something (only humorously of someone) - "the car was in good repair", "the house will be in good reapir", "we could not see what state of repair the place was in from outside".
There is another verb ‘repair’ (which comes from a different root) meaning to go somewhere (often in mock military retreat) - "after my wife banned us from watching football at home we repaired to the pub".
‘Mend’ can be used to describe the healing process. A broken bone might be repairing, but the person is ‘on the mend’. ‘Mend’ can also be used to describe the improvement of something, especially behaviour - ‘mend your ways’, ‘mend your manners’.
‘Fix’ has a huge stack of meanings, mostly colloquial. It can mean to repair something, to fasten something, to agree something ("Have you fixed the date of your wedding?"), to direct (one’s eyes), to neuter an animal ("You better get that cat fixed, or else we’ll have kittens to look after."), to sort someone out (violently), to prepare a snack or a drink, to take a drug (one’s fix), to make a picture permanent on film, or to stabilise a chemical. As a noun it can be quite a stick predicament - "What a fix we’re in!" Or a navigational position - "With the compass gone, Blackbeard got a fix on the Pole Star."
I hope that makes some sense…
- Garzo.
