patron

noun

1. One who protects or supports; a defender or advocate.

   “patron of my life and liberty”

   “the patron of true holiness”

   “Let him who works the client wrong beware the patron’s ire!”

2. One who protects or supports; a defender or advocate.

   “St. Joseph is the patron of many different places.”

3. An influential, wealthy person who supported an artist, craftsman, a scholar or a noble.
4. A customer, as of a certain store or restaurant.

   “This car park is for patrons only.”

   “In our trial of the AOT, a transect was used to collect data about the languages being spoken by patrons of the NIE cafeteria during lunchtimes.”

5. (Roman, historical)A protector of a dependent, especially a master who had freed a slave but still retained some paternal rights.
6. (UK)One who has gift and disposition of a benefice.
7. A padrone.
8. (historical, obsolete)A property owner, a landlord, a master. (Compare patroon.)

   “Half-a-dozen little boys carried it to the inn, where I had to explain to the patron, in my best Spanish, that we wanted a carriage to go to the baths, seven leagues off.”

   “[...] would obtain permission from the West India Company to settle in certain areas in the New World and cultivate the land. Sometimes absentee patrons would give the colony to a group of interested persons and the patrons would finance ...”

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive)To be a patron of; to patronize; to favour.

   “a good cause needs not to be patroned by passion”

2. (obsolete, transitive)To treat as a patron.