patent leather
12
4.0
- noun
- /ˈpætənt ˈlɛðər/
:
charol
- He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes.
- patent leather shoes
- black patent leather
- patent leather belt
It's just like a a patent leather black like mini flop.
- It's just like a a patent leather black like mini flop.
Examples
-
The brand-new black patent leather with the big silver bows?
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There was a brown patent-leather clutch on sale that she wanted to buy.
Fiction book (1995) -
One woman walks quickly, holding her black patent leather purse in front of her, like a shield.
Fiction book (1996) -
But Frank, he'd come on stage with the blue eyes, the sharkskin suit, the patent leather shoes...
-
Beneath it, she had on a lace-trimmed dress, white lace tights, and patent-leather shoes.
Fiction book (1998) -
Theirs is a noisy, glossy craft, carried in round red or black patent-leather hat boxes.
Fiction book (1990) -
She's wearing shoes, Maroon patent leather shoes with a low heel and three slim buckles, but no socks.
-
Rose looked down at the toes of her black patent-leather slingbacks, gleaming sullenly in the dim light.
Fiction book (1998) -
But that morning he was clad in lime-green slacks with yellow patent leather loafers, complete with fringed tongues.
Fiction book (1992) -
She carried a stylish bag made of patent leather that caught everyone's eye.
Antonyms
How Shiny
Surface Forms
Morphology
A B1 learner who knows 'patent' as 'clearly evident' and 'leather' as animal skin would not naturally infer a hard, shiny, varnished finish from those constituents; in this compound 'patent' refers historically to a varnishing/patented glazing process rather than the common sense of 'obvious'. The lexicalization is essentially a conventional technical term (many languages use different words like French 'cuir verni' or Spanish 'charol'), so the meaning is not transparently derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Patent leather may come from a special patent process that covered the leather with a hard, shiny finish. The finish made shoes and bags shine like glass, so patent leather now means leather with a very shiny surface.