patronage

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: pat=ron=age

CIDE DICTIONARY

patronage, n. [F. patronage. Cf. LL. patronaticum, and L. patronatus.].

•  Special countenance or support; favor, encouragement, or aid, afforded to a person or a work; as, the patronage of letters; patronage given to an author.  [1913 Webster]
•  Business custom.  [1913 Webster]
•  Guardianship, as of a saint; tutelary care.  Addison.  [1913 Webster]
•  The right of nomination to political office; also, the offices, contracts, honors, etc., which a public officer may bestow by favor.  [1913 Webster]
•  The right of presentation to church or ecclesiastical benefice; advowson.  Blackstone.  [1913 Webster]

patronage, v. t. 

 To act as a patron of; to maintain; to defend.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

patronage, n.
1 the support, promotion, or encouragement given by a patron.
2 a patronizing or condescending manner.
3 Rom. Antiq. the rights and duties or position of a patron.
4 Brit. the right of presenting a member of the clergy to a benefice etc.
5 a customer's support for a shop etc.

Etymology

ME f. OF (as PATRON)

THESAURUS

patronage

abetment, administration, advocacy, advocating, advocation, aegis, aid, auspices, backing, benefaction, bias, boosting, business, care, carriage trade, certificate of character, championship, character, character reference, charge, charity, clientage, clientele, condescension, contempt, contumely, countenance, credential, cure, custodianship, custody, custom, deigning, disdain, encouragement, favor, favoritism, favors of office, financing, fosterage, good name, goodwill, governance, government, guardianship, guidance, hands, help, humiliation, interest, jurisdiction, keeping, letter of introduction, management, market, melon, ministry, nepotism, oversight, partiality, pastorage, pastorate, pastorship, patronizing, plum, political patronage, pork, pork barrel, pork-barreling, preference, promotion, protection, protectorship, public, purchasing public, recommend, recommendation, reference, repute, rural market, safe hands, scorn, seconding, spoils system, sponsorship, stewardship, stooping, subsidy, suburban market, superiority, support, sympathy, testimonial, trade, trading, traffic, tutelage, voucher, ward, wardenship, wardship, watch and ward, wing, youth market

ROGET THESAURUS

patronage

Aid

N aid, aidance, assistance, help, opitulation, succor, support, lift, advance, furtherance, promotion, coadjuvancy, patronage, championship, countenance, favor, interest, advocacy, sustentation, subvention, alimentation, nutrition, nourishment, eutrophy, manna in the wilderness, food, means, ministry, ministration, subministration, accommodation, relief, rescue, help at a dead lift, supernatural aid, deus ex machina, supplies, reinforcements, reenforcements, succors, contingents, recruits, support, adjunct, ally, aiding, auxiliary, adjuvant, helpful, coadjuvant, subservient, ministrant, ancillary, accessory, subsidiary, at one's beck, at one's beck and call, friendly, amicable, favorable, propitious, well-disposed, neighborly, obliging, with the aid, by the aid of, on behalf of, in behalf of, in aid of, in the service of, in the name of, in favor of, in furtherance of, on account of, for the sake of, on the part of, non obstante, Int, help!, save us!, to the rescue!, alterum alterius auxilio eget, God befriend us as our cause is just, at your service.

Authority

N authority, influence, patronage, power, preponderance, credit, prestige, prerogative, jurisdiction, right, direction, government, divine right, dynastic rights, authoritativeness, absoluteness, absolutism, despotism, jus nocendi, jus divinum, mastery, mastership, masterdom, dictation, control, hold, grasp, grip, gripe, reach, iron sway, fangs, clutches, talons, rod of empire, commission, deputy, permission, at the head, dominant, paramount, supreme, predominant, preponderant, in the ascendant, influential, arbitrary, compulsory, stringent, at one's command, in one's power, in one's grasp, under control, in the name of, by the authority of, de par le Roi, in virtue of, under the auspices of, in the hands of, at one's pleasure, by a dash if the pen, by a stroke of the pen, ex mero motu, ex cathedra, from the chair, the gray mare the better horse, every inch a king.

Influence

N influence, importance, weight, pressure, preponderance, prevalence, sway, predominance, predominancy, ascendency, dominance, reign, control, domination, pull, authority, capability, effect, interest, synergy (cooperation), footing, purchase, play, leverage, vantage ground, tower of strength, host in himself, protection, patronage, auspices, influential, effective, important, weighty, prevailing, prevalent, rife, rampant, dominant, regnant, predominant, in the ascendant, hegemonical, with telling effect, tel maure tel valet.