patronage

  1. Noun.  The act of providing approval and support; backing; championship.
  2. Noun.  Customers collectively; clientele; business.
  3. Noun.  A communication that indicates lack of respect by patronizing the recipient; condescension; disdain.
  4. Noun.  (politics) Granting favours or giving contracts or making appointments to office in return for political support.
  5. Noun.  The people who ride a form of transportation. i.e. The customers or clientele of that form of transportation. Synonym of ridership.
  6. Verb.  (transitive) To support by being a patron of.
  7. Verb.  (transitive) To be a regular customer or client of; to patronize; to patronise; to support; to keep going.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.