What is "pat"

Pat \Pat\, adv. In a pat manner.

I foresaw then 't would come in pat hereafter.
--Sterne.

Pat \Pat\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Patted; p. pr. & vb. n. Patting.] [Cf. G. patschen, Prov. G. patzen, to strike, tap.] To strike gently with the fingers or hand; to stroke lightly; to tap; as, to pat a dog.

Gay pats my shoulder, and you vanish quite.
--Pope.

Pat \Pat\, n.

1. A light, quik blow or stroke with the fingers or hand; a tap.

2. A small mass, as of butter, shaped by pats.

   It looked like a tessellated work of pats of butter.
   --Dickens.

Pat \Pat\, a. [Cf. pat a light blow, D. te pas convenient, pat, where pas is fr. F. passer to pass.] Exactly suitable; fit; convenient; timely. ``Pat allusion.''
--Barrow.

as a fem. proper name, short for Patricia. As a masc. proper name, short for Patrick; hence a nickname for any Irishman.

c.1400, "a blow, stroke," perhaps originally imitative of the sound of patting. Meaning "light tap with hand" is from c.1804. Sense of "that which is formed by patting" (as in pat of butter) is 1754, probably from the verb. Pat on the back in the figurative sense attested by 1804.

"aptly, suitably, at the right time," 1570s, perhaps from pat (adj.) in sense of "that which hits the mark," a special use from pat (n.) in sense of "a hitting" of the mark. The modern adjective is 1630s, from the adverb.

1560s, "to hit, throw;" meaning "to tap or strike lightly" is from 1714; from pat (n.). Related: Patted; patting. The nursery rhyme phrase pat-a-cake is known from 1823. Alternative patty-cake (usually American English) is attested from 1794 (in "Mother Goose's Melody, or Sonnets for the Cradle," Worcester, Mass.).

Etymology 1

1. 1 timely, suitable, apt, opportune, ready for the occasion; especially of things spoken 2 trite, being superficially complete, lacking originality adv. 1 opportunely, in a timely or suitable way. 2 perfectly. n. 1 The sound of a light slap or tap with a soft flat object, especially of a footstep 2 A light tap or slap, especially with the hands 3 A flattish lump of soft matter, especially butter or dung. v

2. 1 To (gently) tap the flat of one's hand on a person or thing. 2 To hit lightly and repeatedly with the flat of the hand to make smooth or flat 3 (context Australia New Zealand English) To stroke or fondle (an animal). 4 To gently rain. Etymology 2

   n. 1 patent 2 (context knitting English) pattern

1. adj. having only superficial plausibility; "glib promises"; "a slick commercial" [syn: glib, slick]

2. exactly suited to the occasion; "a pat reply"

3. [also: patting, patted]

1. n. the sound made by a gentle blow [syn: rap, tap]

2. a light touch or stroke [syn: tap, dab]

3. [also: patting, patted]

1. adv. completely or perfectly; "he has the lesson pat"; "had the system down pat"

2. [also: patting, patted]

1. v. pat or squeeze fondly or playfully, especially under the chin [syn: chuck]

2. hit lightly; "pat him on the shoulder" [syn: dab]

3. [also: patting, patted]

Pat or PAT may refer to:

Pat is an androgynous fictional character created and performed by Julia Sweeney for the American sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and later featured in the film It's Pat. The central humorous aspect of sketches featuring Pat is the inability of others to determine the character's gender.

Pat is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He appears in the chapter "The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill." He works for the White Rabbit like his friend Bill the Lizard. Carroll never gives any description of the character other than being a gardener, and his species has been widely debated, with evidence showing he is likely to be a monkey or a guinea pig.

When the White Rabbit mistakes Alice for his maid, Mary Ann, she drinks from a bottle that makes her grow. The Rabbit thinks she is a monster, so he asks Pat to climb down the chimney to get the monster out of his house. Pat refuses, so the Rabbit decides to send Bill the Lizard to climb down instead. When Bill climbs down the chimney, Alice kicks him, causing him to fly out of the chimney and back into the Rabbit’s garden.

PAT (Process Analysis Toolkit) is a self-contained framework for composing, simulating and reasoning of concurrent, real-time systems and other possible domains. It comes with user friendly interfaces, featured model editor and animated simulator. Most importantly, PAT implements various model checking techniques catering for different properties such as deadlock-freeness, divergence-freeness, reachability, LTL properties with fairness assumptions, refinement checking and probabilistic model checking. To achieve good performance, advanced optimization techniques are implemented in PAT, e.g. partial order reduction, symmetry reduction, process counter abstraction. So far, PAT has 1350 registered users from 302 organizations in 41 countries and regions.