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A toll or duty paid for weighing wool; also, the act of weighing wool. [Obs.] Nares.

dy of matrons. Burke. Can a politician slight the feelings and convictions of the whole matronage of his country Hare.

nance or support; favor, encouragement, or aid, afforded to a person or a work; as, the patronage of letters; patronage given to an author.

King of Castile (1252- 1284). Alphonsine tables, astronomical tables prepared under the patronage of Alphonso the Wise. Whewell.

Protection; patronage and care; guidance. Which by his auspice they will nobler make. Dryden.

rize, or as where two or more persons are engaged in the same business and each seeking patronage; -- followed by for before the object sought, and with before the person or thing competed with. Competition to the crown there is none, nor can be. Bacon. A portrait, with which one of Titian's could not come in competiti…

informal dedication, as of a book to a person, as a mark of respect or an invitation of patronage.

Undue attachment to relations; favoritism shown to members of one's family; bestowal of patronage in consideration of relationship, rather than of merit or of legal claim. From nepotism Alexander V. was safe; for he was without kindred or relatives. But there was another perhaps more fatal nepotism, which turned the ti…

Nourishment or support from official patronage; as, treasury pap. [Colloq. & Contemptuous]

The right or duty of a patron; patronage. [R.] Westm. Rev.

The act of patronizing; patronage; support. [R.]

after the Turkish conquest became powerful in clerical and other offices under Turkish patronage.

Under the patronage of royality; holding a charter granted by the sovereign; as, the Royal Academy of Arts; the Royal Society. Battle royal. See under Battle. -- Royal bay (Bot.), the classic laurel (Laurus nobilis.) -- Royal eagle. (Zoöl.) See Golden eagle, under Golden. -- Royal fern (Bot.), the handsome fern Osmun…

One employed to solicit patronage, as for a steamboat, hotel, shop, etc. [Cant, U.S.]

Of or pertaining to a seignior; seigneurial. "Kingly or seignioral patronage." Burke.

A special class of small yachts developed in Germany under the patronage of Emperor William and Prince Henry of Prussia, and so called because these yachts do not conform to the restrictions for the regular classes established by the rules of the International Yacht Racing Union. In yachts of the sonderclass, as prescr…

To transfer the patronage of. [Obs.] Warner.

tem and its institutions by voluntary association and effort, rather than by the aid or patronage of the state.

A list of business concerns regarded as worthy of patronage by reason of compliance with certain conditions, as in regard to treatment of employees; as, the white list of the Consumers' League. [Cant]