pattern Hear it!

pattern Definition

pat·tern (pat′ərn)

noun

  1. a person or thing considered worthy of imitation or copying
  2. a model or plan used as a guide in making things; set of forms to the shape of which material is cut for assembly into the finished article a dress pattern
  3. the full-scale model used in making a sand mold for casting metal
  4. something representing a class or type; example; sample
  5. an arrangement of form; disposition of parts or elements; design wallpaper patterns, the pattern of a novel
  6. a regular, mainly unvarying way of acting or doing behavior patterns
  7. a predictable or prescribed route, movement, etc. traffic pattern, landing pattern
    1. grouping or distribution, as of a number of bullets fired at a mark
    2. something, as a diagram, showing such distribution
  9. ☆ Now Rare sufficient material for making a garment

Etymology: ME patron < OFr patrun, patron, hence something to be imitated, pattern: see patron

transitive verb

  1. to make, do, shape, or plan in imitation of a model or pattern: with on, upon, or after
  2. to supply with a pattern or design; mark or decorate with a pattern

pattern Synonyms

pattern

n.

  1. A model

    original, guide, model, exemplar; see model 1, 2.

  2. Markings

    decoration, trim, ornament; see design 1. See syn. study at model.

pattern Finance Definition
A trend that can be detected by connecting the prices on a price chart. Technical analysts interpret patterns in order to predict likely future price movements.
pattern Usage Examples

Object

  • tights: What better way to celebrate Spring than with some wonderful floral patterned tights, including the new Falke which are to die for.

Converse of object

  • dot: Character dot pattern BBC BASIC for Windows emulates the BBC Micro OSWORD call which reads the ' dot pattern ' of a character.

Adjective modifier

  • spatial: Modeling climate and land use influences on spatial patterns of UK plant biodiversity.
  • geometric: Variations of floral and geometric arabesque patterns and abstract Kufic scripts were expressed in hardwood, plaster, screens, pavings and furniture designs.
  • rhythmic: Within what seems to be a very repetitive sound one can hear [ Clue ] in the rhythmic patterns.
  • similar: A similar pattern of population change occurred in Northern Ireland.
  • repeating: This kicks off with a simple repeating pattern which is gradually added to as the track progresses.
  • intricate: The sides feature pierced work which is often an attempt to resemble the intricate pattern of wicker work.

Modifies a noun

  • matching: General Regular Expression Traps using s / / / , etc. Traps related to the use of pattern matching.
  • recognition: The MOS camera uses an event pattern recognition scheme.
  • formation: Program: IMA Workshop: Pattern Formation in Continuous and Coupled Systems.

Noun used with modifier

  • diffraction: What else can we say about the diffraction pattern from a protein crystal?
  • shift: The annual Workplace Report shift pay survey gives details of over 200 shift pay rates across the five main shift patterns.
  • sleep: It helps reduce tension and thereby improves natural sleep patterns over a period of weeks.
  • weather: As Smith 2 showed in his study of weather patterns... References are numbered in the order they appear in the text.
  • settlement: The opening of the Cambrian Railroad in 1867 brought immense changes to the settlement patterns of the coastal strip.
  • usage: The daily usage pattern fits neatly into the quiet overnight period in the UK.

Possessives

  • Spode: Spode's pattern is thought to date from 1806.

Preposition: of

  • behavior: We may use technology to track the patterns of behavior of visitors to our site.

Preposition: for

  • gamefish: All patterns for all gamefish, including magazine flies, and repeats of that last fly you have left.
pattern Quotes

World, world, I cannot get thee close enough! Long have I known a glory in it all, But never knew like this; Here such a pattern is As stretcheth me apart. Lord, I do fear Thou'st made the world too beautiful this year: My soul is all but out of meölet fall No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.

—Millay, Edna St Vincent

A people without history Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern Of timeless moments.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

And the softness of my body will be guarded by embrace By each button, hook, and lace. For the man who should loose me is dead, Fighting with the Duke in Flanders, In a pattern called a war. Christ! What are patterns for?

—Lowell, Amy

Here they have no time for the fine graces of poetry, unless it freely grows in deep compulsion, like water in the well, woven into the texture of the soil in a strong pattern.

—A'Ghobhainn

Men wiser and more learned than I have discerned in historya plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern. Those harmonies are concealed from me. I can see only one emergency following upon another, as wave follows upon wave; only one real fact with respect to which, since it is unique, there can be no generalizations.Only one safe rule for the historian: that he should recognize in the development of human destinies the play of the contingent and the unforeseen.

—Fisher, H(erbert) A(lbert) L(aurens)

That long frontier fromthe Atlantic tothe Pacificoceans, guarded only by neighbourly respect and honourable obligations, is an exampleto everycountryand a pattern for the future of the world.

—Churchill, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated Of dead and living.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

Shakespeare was the Homer, or father of our dramatic poets;Jonson was theVirgil, the pattern of elaborate writing; I admire him, but I love Shakespeare.

—Dryden,John

Remember, the prince is like a mirror exposed to the eyes of all his subjects who continually look to him as a pattern on which to model themselves, and who in consequence without much trouble discover his vices and virtues.

—CharlesV

I stopped loving my father a long time ago. What remained was the slavery to a pattern.

—Nin, Ana|«  s

Why it was that upon this beautiful feminine tissue, sensitive as gossamer, and practically blank as snow as yet, there should have been traced such a coarse pattern as it was doomed to receive; why so often the coarse appropriates the finer thus, the wrong man the woman, the wrong woman the man, many thousand years of analytical philosophy have failed to explain to our sense of order.

—Hardy,Thomas

Browse dictionary entries near pattern

  1. ‹ patter song
  2. ‹ patter
  3. ‹ patten
  4. ‹ patsy
  5. ‹ patroon
  6. ‹ patronymic
  7. ‹ patronizing
  8. ‹ patronize
  9. ‹ patroness
  10. ‹ patronal
  1. patternmaker ›
  2. Patti ›
  3. Patton ›
  4. patty ›
  5. patty-cake ›
  6. patty shell ›
  7. pattypan ›
  8. patulous ›
  9. patzer ›
  10. Pau ›