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What is "patent leather"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
patent leather
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a patent leather handbag
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And black patent leather tap shoes covered her most famous toes, which nobody realized yet were famous.
▪ Footwear first, of course: Gucci patent leather, square-toed boots are in.
▪ Marion looked down at her low-heeled patent leather pumps and sighed.
▪ Pearlized white patent leather handbags are popular, says Aaronson.
▪ She noticed with disgust that there were several droplets of blood on the patent leather.
▪ The woman stepped lightly away on her high-heeled, patent leather boots to her basket-work Mini parked beside the public convenience.
▪ When found, she was wearing a pink floral dress, lilac tights, a white cardigan and black patent leather shoes.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Patent leather

Patent \Pat"ent\ (p[a^]t"ent or p[=a]t"ent), a. [L. patens, -entis, p. pr. of patere to be open: cf. F. patent. Cf. Fathom.]

  1. Note: (Oftener pronounced p[=a]t"ent in this sense) Open; expanded; evident; apparent; unconcealed; manifest; public; conspicuous.

    He had received instructions, both patent and secret.
    --Motley.

  2. Open to public perusal; -- said of a document conferring some right or privilege; as, letters patent. See Letters patent, under 3d Letter.

  3. Appropriated or protected by letters patent; secured by official authority to the exclusive possession, control, and disposal of some person or party; patented; as, a patent right; patent medicines.

    Madder . . . in King Charles the First's time, was made a patent commodity.
    --Mortimer.

  4. (Bot.) Spreading; forming a nearly right angle with the steam or branch; as, a patent leaf. Patent leather, a varnished or lacquered leather, used for boots and shoes, and in carriage and harness work. Patent office, a government bureau for the examination of inventions and the granting of patents. Patent right.

    1. The exclusive right to an invention, and the control of its manufacture.

    2. (Law) The right, granted by the sovereign, of exclusive control of some business of manufacture, or of the sale of certain articles, or of certain offices or prerogatives.

      Patent rolls, the registers, or records, of patents.

Wiktionary
patent leather

n. Leather that has been given a high gloss, shiny finish.

WordNet
patent leather

n. leather with a hard glossy surface

Wikipedia
Patent leather

Patent leather is a type of coated leather that has a very glossy, shiny finish. The coating process was introduced to the United States and improved by inventor Seth Boyden of Newark, New Jersey in 1818, with commercial manufacture beginning September 20, 1819. Boyden's process, which he did not patent, used a linseed oil–based lacquer coating. Modern patent leather usually has a plastic coating.

Usage examples of "patent leather".

The shades were drawn so as to shut out any light, and The Patent Leather Kid let his flashlight flicker around the room, taking in the various details.

The blood gathered darkly, like fruit, and rolled down my ankle into the cup of my black patent leather shoe.

I have on a striped pull-over and resplendent patent leather shoes.

Aureliano, dressed in black, wearing the same patent leather boots with metal fasteners that he would have on a few years later as he faced the firing squad, had an intense paleness and a hard lump in his throat when he met the bride at the door of the house and led her to the altar.

As she came up to the plodding gravel cart she barely lifted the gloved hand that held the reins, and the plunging pair of pale horses swerved neatly and the elegant vehicle flashed past so close that, had he dared, Ralph might have reached up and touched one of those slim ankles in its high-buttoned patent leather boot which just showed under the tailored skirt of moire taffeta.