patdown - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

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• 1 English
  • 1.1 Etymology
  • 1.2 Noun
    * 1.2.1 Alternative forms
    * 1.2.2 Translations
  • 1.3 Anagrams

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Deverbal from pat down.

patdown (plural patdowns)

1. (US, informal) An act of patting somebody's clothes to check for concealed weapons, etc.
   Synonyms: frisk, frisking
   • 2006, Yoram Wind, Colin Crook, Robert E. Gunther, The power of impossible thinking:
     To avoid such charges, airline screeners moved to random processes that led to patdowns of congressional representatives and mild-mannered elderly women...

• pat-down

patting somebody's clothes

• down pat

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