1. With the second syllable accented (pâté, pronounced approximately "pa-TAY"), a spread made of liver, butter and spices. Pate can be made with the liver of chicken, duck, calf and other meat and poultry. The classic pâté, Pâté de Foie Gras, is made with goose livers.

2. More generally, any sort of meat paste, made of finely ground, cooked meat. This is also pronounced "pa-TAY".

3. When rhymed with "fate", a pate is a head or especially the top of the head.

Pate (?), n. [Cf. LG. & Prov. G. pattkopf, patzkopf, scabby head; patt, patz, scab + kopf head.]

1.

The head of a person; the top, or crown, of the head.

[Now generally used in contempt or ridicule.]<-- esp., bald pate -->

His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. Ps. vii. 16.

Fat paunches have lean pate. Shak.

2.

The skin of a calf's head.

 

© Webster 1913.

Pa`té" (?), a. Her.

See Patté.

 

© Webster 1913.


Pa`té" (?), n. [F. paté.]

1.

A pie. See Patty.

2. Fort.

A kind of platform with a parapet, usually of an oval form, and generally erected in marshy grounds to cover a gate of a fortified place.

[R.]

 

© Webster 1913.

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