patron

plural patrons

1. One who protects or supports; a defender or advocate.

   the patron of true holiness

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   patron of my life and liberty

   c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]

   Let him who works the client wrong beware the patron’s ire!

   1834–1838 (date written), Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Virginia”, in Lays of Ancient Rome, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 154

   1. A guardian or intercessor; synonym of patron saint.

      St. Joseph is the patron of many different places.

2. An influential, wealthy person who supported an artist, craftsman, a scholar or a noble.

   Synonyms: friend

3. A customer, as of a certain store or restaurant.

   This car park is for patrons only.

   1 more example

   In our trial of the AOT, a transect was used to collect data about the languages being spoken by patrons of the NIE cafeteria during lunchtimes.

   2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 4

4. RomanhistoricallawA protector of a dependent, especially a master who had freed a slave but still retained some paternal rights.
5. UKecclesiasticalOne who has gift and disposition of a benefice.
6. nauticalA padrone.
7. historicalobsoleteA property owner, a landlord, a master. (Compare patroon.)

   Half-a-dozen little boys carried it to the inn, where I had to explain to the patron, in my best Spanish, that we wanted a carriage to go to the baths, seven leagues off.

   1879, Annie Allnutt Brassey, A Voyage in the "Sunbeam", page 170

   1 more example

   [...] would obtain permission from the West India Company to settle in certain areas in the New World and cultivate the land. Sometimes absentee patrons would give the colony to a group of interested persons and the patrons would finance ...

   1992, Eric O. Ayisi, St. Eustatius, Treasure Island of the Caribbean

present singular third person patrons · participle present patroning · participle past patroned · past patroned

1. obsoletetransitiveTo be a patron of; to patronize; to favour.

   a good cause needs not to be patroned by passion

   1642, [Thomas Browne], “(please specify the page)”, in Religio Medici, London: […] Andrew Crooke, →OCLC

2. obsoletetransitiveTo treat as a patron.