PATCHES Synonyms: 186 Similar and Opposite Words

patches 1 of 2

noun

plural of patch

as in blotches

a small area that is different (as in color) from the main part a black cat with a small patch of white next to her nose

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as in specks

a very small piece a patch of land hardly big enough for a garden

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

patches

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of patch

as in repairs

to put into good shape or working order again patch the tire and it'll be as good as new

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of patches

Noun

Although short-term volatility may be unsettling, investors with time horizons measured in years should be well-positioned to ride out the rough patches that inevitably occur along the way. — Daniel Kern, Forbes.com, 26 Oct. 2026 Both teams wore commemorative jersey patches honoring the late NBA coach Rick Adelman, who led the Kings to eight consecutive playoff appearances from 1998 through 2006. — Sacbee.com, 24 Oct. 2026 Women across the country are still struggling to fill prescriptions for estrogen patches. — Berkeley Lovelace Jr, NBC news, 23 Oct. 2026 Although patches were released Wednesday, many outdated versions of PHP are still in use, and the patch almost certainly didn't fix all of PHP's problems. — Alexa Lomonaco,matthew J. Belvedere,jeff Marks, CNBC, 23 Oct. 2026 Some websites may still be down because there are multiple patches available for different types of software, and some organizations may still be waiting to receive them. — Kaitlyn Huamani, Chicago Tribune, 22 Oct. 2026 The researchers grew the common research plant Arabidopsis thaliana in containers, some of which were dotted with patches of rotting apple. — Joanna Thompson, Scientific American, 17 Oct. 2026 In a separate early-stage study of 22 patients with actinic keratosis, rough, precancerous skin patches caused by sun exposure, the company reported a 49% average reduction in lesions after 28 days of treatment. — Khloe Quill, FOXNews.com, 16 Oct. 2026 Trimming vegetation around the foundation, keeping the grass short, and removing large patches of ivy and weeds eliminates overwintering opportunities for pests. — Nadia Hassani, The Spruce, 16 Oct. 2026

Verb

While Vision patches himself up from the Paladin fight and suffers through Ultron’s barbs, Paladin patches his own wounds and takes similar guff from his handler. — Tasha Robinson, Vulture, 21 Oct. 2026 Security patches for the PHP programming language, widely used to build websites and web apps, have rolled out today, with the goal of fixing two critical vulnerabilities that could wreak havoc on the internet if left unchecked. — Jess Weatherbed, The Verge, 21 Oct. 2026 Not only are the shimmery gold patches a lush treat to look at, but the cooling hydrogels also feel relaxing after a long day. — Vivien Lee, InStyle, 15 Oct. 2026 Next, there is the issue of tarsal glands (the dark patches on the rear legs of a buck, below the knee joint). — Jack Hennessy, Outdoor Life, 23 Sep. 2026 By Childs’s count, Tuesday’s release patches 972 vulnerabilities, and 997 when counting the porting of fixes for the Chromium browser incorporated into Edge. — Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 8 Sep. 2026 The unisex capsule, consisting of nine items, offers a nostalgic take on the history of F1, drawing on style icons like the late Ayrton Senna and the sponsor logo patches on drivers’ uniforms. — Joelle Diderich, Footwear News, 7 Sep. 2026 To fix this issue, the FDA is leaning on manufacturers to step up and speed up production, adding shifts, expanding capacity, bringing on new lines and specialized equipment, and prioritizing estradiol patches ahead of other products. — Caitlin Kiernan, Flow Space, 4 Sep. 2026 Reps send payment links manually, RevOps patches data and Finance chases numbers that should’ve been captured upstream. — Ashish Srimal, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for patches

Noun

Juveniles can be distinguished by their dark facial bands and gray or tan body patterned with black or brown blotches.

— Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Sep. 2026
Crews are also using steam to remove blotches of chewing gum, which have turned black over time.

— ABC News, ABC News, 16 Aug. 2026

Definition of blotches

Noun

The source was generally in good condition, but mold spots and dense clusters of small white specks required careful treatment.

— Lin Ying-Hsuan, Variety, 13 Oct. 2026
Breakouts can look like milder, painless white bumps or dark specks known as whiteheads and blackheads, or more painful red bumps and deeper cysts — a mark of cystic acne.

— Adithi Ramakrishnan, Los Angeles Times, 13 Oct. 2026

Definition of specks

Verb

Damage to a walkway or handrail, by comparison, might remain unchanged until someone repairs it.

— Emma Clapp, Miami Herald, 16 Oct. 2026
In that dialogue, Endymion, the mythical shepherd, is imprisoned in an eternal sleep by Artemis and accosts a stranger who is on his way to Mount Latmus, where Endymion repairs each night to wait for Artemis.

— Max Norman, Harpers Magazine, 22 Sep. 2026

Definition of repairs

Noun

The oversized jacket featured a furry white base adorned with flecks of silver, which beautifully mirrored the sumptuous coats on the runway.

— Chanel Vargas, InStyle, 25 Sep. 2026
Add the torn basil and process just until incorporated -- there will be flecks of green in the mixture.

— ABC News, ABC News, 19 Sep. 2026

Definition of flecks

Noun

As plastic in the body breaks down into smaller and smaller bits — known as microplastics and nanoplastics — the potential danger increases, said Wei Min, a Columbia University chemist who co-authored the study.

— Michael Hawthorne, Chicago Tribune, 22 Oct. 2026
If successful, bits of dust, soil and rocks from Phobos will arrive on Earth in 2031.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of bits

Verb

If a customer fixes an address but later messages or decisions still use the old one, the correction may not have reached every system.

— Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 16 Oct. 2026
The gas used in the Holocaust used the same industrial chemistry that fixes nitrogen for the fertilizer that feeds most of the world.

— Stephen Messer, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of fixes

Noun

In Raad’s hands, the dots read as much confetti as forensic notations.

— Emily Watlington, ARTnews.com, 25 Oct. 2026
The researchers varied how many dots moved together, ranging from 81 percent of the dots coherently moving together, which is trivially easy to determine, down to 3 percent, which is barely distinguishable from noise.

— Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of dots

Noun

If there are 1023 particles interfering with one another on such tiny and fast quantum scales, no human has a chance to see constructive quantum interference.

— Philipp Strasberg, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
The simulations use particles to trace dark matter’s density and velocity, allowing scientists to model how cosmic structures evolved.

— Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 20 Oct. 2026